Divine Justice
by CharlotteB
Summary: Daniel Jackson agrees to mentor a research project and eventually finds some unconventional new recruits for the SGC. Jack O’Neill’s not sure it’s a fair trade, but Sam Carter’s pretty sure it’s karma. Crossover with Stargate: SG1
1. Default Chapter

Title: Divine Justice

Author: CharlotteB

Summary: Daniel agrees to mentor a research project and eventually finds some unconventional new recruits for the SGC. O'Neill's not sure it's a fair trade, but Carter's pretty sure it's karma.

Spoilers: Seasons 1-4 of Angel; All of BtVS (including 'Chosen'); Seasons 1-8 of Stargate SG-1

Pairings: Wes/Fred (More are coming, but I'm not sure what they are yet)

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

Warnings: Will have Riley Finn in a non-character bashing capacity. Also, I've been watching SG-1 out of order, so I have no idea what season I'm dealing with most of the time. Takes place about five years post-Chosen. I've also shifted the SG-1 timeline a bit so that season 8 took place during the fourth post-Chosen year. My first Stargate fic.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Brigadier General Jack O'Neill glared at the pile of manila folders on his desk and began to wish for something to happen that didn't involve hiring new SGC personnel. Maybe the "unscheduled offworld activation" klaxon would begin blaring so he'd have something else to do. He waited for a few minutes. Complete silence. His office door remained closed and the SGC remained stubbornly klaxon free. Stupid aliens never interrupted when you wanted them to.

He tapped his pen on the desk. After ten minutes or so, he decided that got kind of boring. He put the pen precisely in his desk drawer, opened a folder and was actually preparing to get down to work by sharpening a pencil when he looked up at the clock and noticed it was time for lunch. Happily, he closed the folder, put the pencil down, and headed off towards the commissary.

He was even happier when he got to the commissary and found that SG-1 was already sitting at a table and that they had an extra seat. He wandered over to them. "Hey guys. Mind if I sit?"

Teal'c nodded solemnly. Daniel, head buried in a sheaf of papers of some kind, didn't answer. The new guy shrugged and looked at Carter, who smiled at him and looked up at Jack. The new guy wasn't so new now that Jack thought about it–he'd been with SG-1 for almost a year now.

"Of course, sir. Have a seat."

Quite a few people had been tried as the team's fourth since O'Neill was promoted and Carter took command of SG-1, but no one else had made it past the first couple of missions–either they didn't trust Teal'c, they refused to take orders from Carter, or they were very vocal about getting Daniel off the team. Although, it still wasn't as bad as the time they'd tried to replace Daniel. The new guy hadn't had those problems so far and seemed okay for an Army guy.

"Thanks. So, how's it going? You settling in okay?" The rumor on base was that the new guy had been part of a special ops unit that was disbanded. Another said that he'd been sent to Iraq, where his wife was killed in action. A third rumor said he had been part of a top secret project in California that went completely fubar. No one knew what was true and what wasn't–he didn't talk much.

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"Carter giving you any problems?"

The Lieutenant Colonel under discussion looked like she was preparing to launch a pea at him in response to this last question. He winked at her, not concerned in the least. Knowing her, it would be at least a few minutes while she calculated for wind velocity and the earth's rotation. And built a catapult out of some previously unusable alien technology by rewriting the laws of physics.

Ooo, maybe he'd distract her by asking Daniel about the socio-political ramifications of launching overcooked produce at one's commanding officer...assuming Daniel ever got his head out of whatever the hell it was that he was reading.

While he was pondering that idea, Carter launched her attack and hit him directly between the eyes. She smirked at him. Teal'c raised an eyebrow while Jack wiped the remains of legume corpse off his forehead.

"No, sir." Apparently this guy found his turkey sandwich so engrossing that he'd missed all of his commanding officers' shenanigans. O'Neill wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing.

Besides, getting this guy to open up was like trying to pull teeth. How did Carter stand it? Between Finn and Teal'c, she had to be spending most of her off-world time talking to Daniel. Was there a commendation for not losing your sanity in the face of overwhelming geekiness? He'd have to check.

"Dealing okay with the weirdness?" Some of the newer recruits had issues with knowing about aliens and dealing with the fact that they were part of the Earth's only line of defense against the Goa'uld.

The guy gave a small, sad smile. "Yes, sir."

Okay then. Having run out of small talk, he looked at Daniel. "Whatcha reading, Daniel?"

The archeologist blinked and looked up. "Jack...when did you get here?"

O'Neill rolled his eyes. Nice to know that some things didn't change no matter how many times a person died or how many personnel changes a team went through. "About five minutes ago. So, what's so fascinating?"

"It's a dissertation proposal. There's a woman who wants me to be her advisor."

"Uh huh. What about?" Daniel received two or three of these proposals a year from students but he'd never agreed to advise them, primarily because of his off-world obligations. He'd never been this engrossed in one before, though. Jack took a bite of red jell-o and prepared to be lost in the conversation.

Daniel's eyes were bright behind his glasses and he spoke with a speed that made O'Neill think about switching the man to decaf. "That's the thing, Jack. I've never seen anything like it. She describes hundreds of original first person accounts, but they're all handwritten, they're in hundreds of different languages, most of them are untranslated and they take place chronologically from the beginning of the written word, but they're all talking about the same myth. It's always a girl and she's always fighting the forces of darkness or something like that. Something called...oh, right, there it is...the Slayer..."

Finn choked on his water and looked at Daniel. "The Slayer?"

Daniel looked eagerly at his teammate, practically bouncing in his seat with excitement. "Have you heard of this myth? I've never run across a reference to it in any of my reading."

"Um...oh, wow, is that the time? Please excuse me, General, Colonel, Teal'c, Daniel. I forgot that I have a few overdue mission reports...wouldn't want to get further behind..." He quickly stood, cleared his lunch tray, and exited the commissary at a brisk walk.

"Okay, so that was weird..." Daniel looked at his friends. Teal'c raised an eyebrow in agreement.

"Indeed, DanielJackson. RileyFinn's behavior became erratic as soon as you mentioned the slayer myth."

"You don't think it's a sudden overpowering need to impress a superior officer by having all his work done promptly?"

Daniel rolled his eyes at Sam and ignored O'Neill. "Have you ever heard of a slayer, Teal'c?"

"I have not."

"The guy usually says less than Teal'c...and then he does that? It's obvious he knew something. Why didn't he just tell us?"

Teal'c nodded solemnly in response to Carter's question, thinking carefully for a moment. "Perhaps he is unable to do so, ColonelCarter."

"Huh." Daniel looked more intrigued by the minute.

O'Neill grinned at his 2IC. "Well, whatever the new mystery is, we need to tell the rumor mill that there's no way that guy did special ops–he can't tell a lie or keep a secret to save his life."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Riley Finn walked out of the base, past the security guards, out into the fresh air, taking deep breaths as he headed towards the nearest pay phone. When he got there, he pulled his wallet out his pocket and removed a dog-eared business card with a phone number on it. He dialed and waited for someone to pick up the ringing phone on the other end.

"Hello?" The voice was young and breathless. He didn't recognize it.

"Um, hi. May I please speak to Buffy Summers?"

"Just a sec...BUFFY! 'Phone!"

"Hello?" Ah, there was a voice he recognized.

"Buffy?"

"Yes."

"It's Riley." Silence from the other end of the phone. "I need to tell you about something."

"Okay." Riley rolled his eyes, thankful she couldn't see him. Apparently they weren't getting past the awkwardness of vampire whores and him catching her in bed with Spike anytime this decade.

"I think you've got an information leak in the Watcher's Council. I'm working on a classified project..."

"I knew that already. Remember the demon eggs?"

"Different classified project. Once you guys got all the new slayers up and running, the old project became unnecessary."

"With you so far..."

"One of my team members got a dissertation proposal from someone..."

"I'm getting old here, Riley..."

"Basically, it sounds like it traces slayers through the ages through first person accounts."

"Huh. Sounds a lot like Dawn's pet project. She's been working to translate all the watchers' diaries for a while now–all the old translations got blown up with the building back in 2003. Lemme check." Across the line came the sound of a dropped phone. It was picked up moments later.

"Riley?"

"Who am I speaking to?"

"It's Dawn, Riley."

"Oh, right." She sounded a little different. Of course, the last time she'd spoken to Riley she'd been seventeen. Had five years really gone by so quickly?

"So what's the sitch?"

"Buffy said you were working on a research project translating the watcher diaries?"

"Yeah, but it's kind of slow going. I can't really find anyone to act as my advisor who's fluent in all of the ancient languages I need and won't be wigged out by the supernatural hoodoo. There's one guy who's a possibility, but I haven't heard back yet."

"Who's the guy?"

"Daniel Jackson. Got laughed out of academia about ten years ago because he told people he thought aliens built the pyramids, and no one's really heard from him since. Giles, Willow, and Wes asked around, though, and he's the only one who met our requirements. The address I had was probably out of date, anyway. Riley?"

"Uh huh?"

"Why are you calling me to ask me this? Not that it's not nice to talk to you, or to chat about my not-directly-slayerlike activities, but what's the point?"

"One of my co-workers got a dissertation proposal involving slayers, and I wanted to check that someone there knew what was going on and that it wasn't a sign of another impending apocalypse. Buffy said it sounded like something you were working on, dropped the phone, you picked it up, and here we are."

"You better be working with Daniel Jackson or I'm going to hunt that indiscreet geek down and beat him to death with his tweed jacket."

Riley grinned at the mental image he got and planned to arrange his schedule accordingly if they ever met face to face. Dawn hadn't met a guy quite like Daniel before. She grew up with some expectations of what smart men could be because Giles had pretty much raised her, but she obviously thought he was more the exception than the rule.

"Um, I wouldn't worry about coming up with an alibi for that just yet."

He pulled the phone away from his ear at her happy squeal. Apparently some things didn't change. "Does this mean I have your permission to talk to him about everything?"

Melodramatic sigh. "Not everything, everything, Riley. Just the stuff he has to know to get him to agree, okay?"

"Got it. Everything else okay there? Buffy sounded kind of strange..."

Dawn snorted. "When doesn't Buffy sound strange? She's still not taking retirement the way she thought she would. Basically, she's bored, but fine. Giles is getting a little concerned, honestly–last night over dinner she was talking about flying to Cleveland, picking up Faith, and the two of them taking a tour of the country. Like Thelma and Louise, but with broadswords, stakes and holy water. He's only sixty-five percent sure she was kidding."

"Huh. I'll keep an eye on the news reports, I guess. And Xander and Willow?"

"Xander's in Cleveland, having the time of his life surrounded by nubile slayers and training them to perform their sacred duty. Willow's here in England–she started dating a witch from the Devon coven a few weeks ago–everybody's crossing their fingers that it works. What about you?"

Riley sighed and leaned his head against the top of the phone booth. "It's still hard. There're good days and bad days, y'know? At least work keeps me busy."

"Just make sure it's not all that's keeping you busy, Riley Finn."

"Yeah, I know. Be sure to tell me if you need anything, okay, Dawn?"

"You betcha. Tell Dr. Jackson that if he doesn't get in touch with me soon, I'm going to explode. It won't be pretty. Buffy and Will'll probably send him a jar full of my entrails or something. Ooh, maybe Will'll curse it! Oh, wait, she doesn't do that sort of thing anymore..."

He laughed. "I'll pass the message on to him."

"Bye, Riley. Keep in touch. We worry."

"Bye, Dawn."


	2. Kidnapping Isn't Standard Procedure?

Spoilers: Seasons 1-4 of Angel; All of BtVS (including 'Chosen'); Seasons 1-8 of Stargate SG-1

Rating: R

Pairings: Wes/Fred; Sam/Jack; Daniel/Buffy (Eventually...plus others to come)

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The next morning, Jack was on his way to get a cup of coffee by way of Carter's lab when Daniel ran smack into him.

"Ow." Jack rubbed his right shoulder.

Daniel bent down to pick up the papers he'd dropped. "Sorry, Jack."

"What the hell happened to you?" To say Daniel looked rumpled was a bit of an understatement. His hair was sticking up, he was wearing his glasses instead of his contact lenses, his boots were untied, as if he'd just pulled them on, his T-shirt was completely untucked and his uniform jacket was on inside out. Jack figured that it could have been worse–at least the archaeologist had his pants on. "Have you slept?"

"Uh, no." Jack grunted, grabbed the lapel of Daniel's jacket, and pulled Daniel along behind him into his office. Daniel sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk while Jack took a seat behind it, not above using every tactical at his advantage when dealing with Daniel, especially when he was low on sleep.

"How long?"

"What's today?" Daniel looked more than a little sheepish, let out a yawn, and rubbed his eyes.

"For crying out loud, Daniel! It's Tuesday. 0830."

Daniel cheered and grinned at Jack. "That's not so bad, then. It's only been 36 hours. Hardly a record. Nothing to worry about."

O'Neill closed his eyes and began massaging his temples. After a minute, he opened his eyes and sighed. Sometimes being in charge truly sucked. "I thought we talked about this, Daniel. I can't keep you on an off-world team if you don't take care of yourself. Doc Fraiser may not be around to keep you in line anymore, but I'm not going to let you put yourself and your team in danger because you're too stubborn to fall asleep when your body tells you to."

Daniel's mouth quirked up at the corner and he shrugged. "Sorry, Jack. I got distracted. Besides, SG-1 doesn't have an off-world mission scheduled until next Monday. I'll have plenty of time to catch up on my sleep over the weekend."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yes, because the aliens are always very careful to make sure that they don't interrupt your weekends off."

"Uh, yeah." Daniel yawned again and then cleared his throat. "Anyway, I did want to talk to you. In, y'know, your General 'I'm in charge of the SGC' capacity."

"Shoot."

"I want to hire someone new for my department. How do I do that?"

O'Neill smirked. Only Daniel would still have this question after eight years. "Why don't you just do what you usually do--go off-world and bring someone back with you?"

Daniel blushed. "Last time I did that, General Hammond gave me a stern lecture on how kidnapping citizens from other planets to work on cataloging archeological finds was not 'standard Air Force hiring procedure.' Then he mumbled something about job postings and paperwork and salary pay grades and relocation bonuses and...well...I stopped paying attention."

"I'll walk you through it. There's forms to fill out. Who're you hiring?"

"I want to hire the woman who sent me the dissertation proposal. Dawn Summers." Daniel waved a piece of paper at him.

"What do you want to hire her to do?"

"Eventually, if everything works out, I want her to be my 'second' in the linguistics department. No one I've found so far knows enough non-Romance languages and ancient languages to be left alone and unsupervised. There are tons of things here she can translate while she's learning Goa'uld, and with her skills, I doubt it'll be long before she's fluent. Besides, even if I don't put her in charge, the SGC needs all the good linguists it can get, Jack. You know as well as I do that most of the Academy cadets we get are physicists, not linguists. I think she'll be a real asset. I want to train her for an off-world team."

"Why her?" He couldn't wait to see this woman's resume. She had to be something special to impress Daniel like this.

Daniel referred to the paper in his hand–presumably it was Ms. Summers's resume. "She's got a degree from Oxford in mythology and ancient languages and is fluent in at least seven other modern languages. English, Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese, Hebrew, and Arabic. She's also got conversational Mandarin. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find someone who speaks that many languages?"

"Other than you, you mean?"

Daniel gave a brief rude hand gesture of acknowledgment before he continued, "Not to mention being fluent–fluent, Jack!–in Ancient Sumerian, and Latin, and Ancient Greek, and..."

Great, Jack thought. A female Daniel. He began rooting through his desk drawers for an aspirin and made a mental note to requisition the infirmary for more painkillers. It looked like he'd need them. "Any idea what she looks like, how old she is, anything like that?"

Daniel shrugged. "Uh, no, actually. Most dissertation proposals don't include pictures. She graduated from Oxford in 2007, but that could mean just about anything–she could be an older or returning student. Why, does it matter?"

O'Neill gave a mental groan and rubbed his temples again. An older, ivy-tower female version of Daniel. For consideration as a new off-world team member. And wasn't her project about some woman who defeated the bad guys throughout all of history? Oy. Probably not a great idea to let her near Carter, either. Yeah, this job just wasn't getting any easier. He valiantly resisted the urge to repeatedly slam his head into the top of his desk.

"If we're sending her out there, it does." He waved vaguely in the direction of the Stargate. "She's got to be able to keep up with the team and she's got to learn how to handle weapons. She's going to have to at least meet the same physical standards as the rest of the off-world personnel or we won't get hiring approval. Besides, I'm not sending her out there if there's a chance doing so will get someone killed, I don't care how brilliant she is. Are we clear, Daniel?"

Daniel nodded reluctantly in agreement and stifled yet another yawn. Brilliant linguists' ideas of physical fitness didn't always mesh with those of the Air Force or the needs of the SGC. They'd see what they were dealing with when Ms. Summers showed up.

Jack interrupted Daniel's thoughts. "Any idea if she'd even be interested in the job?"

Daniel shot a grin at his friend. "Jack, it's going to other planets and saving the world on a regular basis...who would turn that down?"

Jack grinned in return. "Anyone with common sense? Besides, doesn't this paragon of linguistitude already have a thing?"

"Linguistitude?" Daniel shook his head in disbelief. Some days he wasn't sure Jack spoke one language fluently.

"Did you or did you not know what I meant?"

"Um..."

"So who cares whether it's a real word? Anyway, moving on..."

Daniel shook his head again, this time as if clearing it. "Well, yeah...she's got a project, but that's at least a lifetime's worth of translating. She can do that when she's older...and when the future of humanity doesn't hang in the balance."

O'Neill rolled his eyes. Sometimes Daniel was just so...Daniel. "Daniel, did you consider the possibility that she might actually want to spend her lifetime doing her lifetime's worth of translating?"

"But...it's saving the world, Jack. Repeatedly."

Jack waved his hand at Daniel. "Yadda yadda. Ooh, and at great personal cost, usually. Don't forget the great personal cost and sacrifices. Look, call her, invite her here for an interview, and we'll see what happens. Deal?"

"Deal." Daniel rose and walked out of the office. Jack's voice stopped him before he got to the hallway.

"And Daniel?"

"Yes?"

"If you don't sleep for the next eight hours, I'm putting you on administrative leave for a week with orders not to let you into the building. Clear?"

"Yes, dad." Daniel turned in the hallway and headed in the direction of his office. He had a phone call to make.


	3. Second Contact

Spoilers: Seasons 1-4 of Angel; All of BtVS (including 'Chosen'); Seasons 1-8 of Stargate SG-1

Pairings: Wes/Fred; Sam/Jack; Daniel/Buffy (Eventually...plus others to come)

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Buffy was sitting sideways in an armchair leafing through a magazine when Dawn walked into the townhouse, removing her coat and scarf and hanging them on the peg board beside the front door. There were some noises as Dawn walked into the kitchen and rummaged in the refrigerator for a couple of minutes. She looked up as her sister walked into the living room polishing an apple on her shirt.

"Hey. Message for you on the table."

"Who's it from?"

"Dr. Daniel Jackson. Will took the message, told him you'd call him back when you got home."

Dawn walked over to the sideboard, read the brief message, and checked her watch. It was one a.m. in London. Her last address for Dr. Jackson was somewhere in Colorado. She did some math, never one of her strong points. Assuming she remembered her time zones correctly, it was five p.m. where he was–right on the edge of business hours, but maybe she'd be lucky and catch him still at his desk. Putting the apple down, she dialed the phone, waiting for the inevitable clicks that came with making an overseas call.

"Hello?"

"Um, yes, hello? May I please speak to Dr. Jackson?" Dawn thanked a few minor deities for the ocean and most of a continent between her and her prospective advisor so that he wouldn't see her twirling her hair in nervousness. Plus, this way she didn't have to change into proper interview clothes and could be comfy in jeans while she spoke to him.

"This is Daniel Jackson." Very professional and intimidating. Probably extra tweedy to make up for the lack of accent.

"Um...hi, Dr. Jackson. This is Dawn Summers. I'm returning your call?" Dawn cursed inwardly at the questioning tremor in her voice. She was an assertive, intelligent, articulate woman who was fluent in twelve languages, damn it. Why did she suddenly sound fourteen?

"Oh, hi!" Okay, the enthusiasm took away some of Dr. Jackson's apparent tweediness. Dawn began to relax. "I've been looking forward to hearing from you, Ms. Summers..."

"Call me Dawn, Dr. Jackson. Ms. Summers makes me feel like my much older sister."

Daniel next heard a loud "Hey," from someone, presumably her sister, followed by a thump and a ear-piercing squeal from Dawn. He grinned. Sounded like she was on the younger edge of the scale. He took this as a good sign that she'd be seduced by the excitement and danger of the SGC and be able to be with the program for a long time. "Dawn, then. Call me Daniel. Anyway, I wanted to get in touch with you."

"About my project?" Dawn was excited. After a year of researching, it looked like she might finally have found an advisor. There weren't many people on the planet who could read cuneiform. Giles and Wesley could, of course, but they were generally busy with other things. Giles was organizing and running the research branch of the Watchers' Council in London while Wes was with his wife and organizing and training all the slayers on the Cleveland hellmouth.

"More or less." There was a pause and it became obvious that Dr. Jackson started hedging. "Uh, actually, Dawn, that's what I wanted to speak to you about."

"Okay..."

"Before I agree or refuse to be your advisor, I'd like to meet you in person, get to know you, talk to you about some things. You're in London, right? I could send you a ticket and I'll meet you next week."

That sounded reasonable to Dawn. After all, with her living in England and him in Colorado, it wasn't like they'd have opportunities for frequent personal contact–she wouldn't be able to drop by during his office hours and ask him questions and trade pithy linguistic barbs. They'd have to do that over e-mail, but it wasn't the same as knowing who you were talking to. Plus, since he and Riley worked together, she'd be able to see Riley and check out how he was really doing. He was, understandably, taking Sam's death pretty hard. Then she had an unsettling thought.

"Sure. But, ah, I have to bring my sister with me. There's this thing, and the rules are that I'm not allowed to travel someplace new by myself."

"Is anything wrong?" Exactly how young was this woman? Vaguely disturbed, Daniel was sidetracked from that concern imagining a mob/informant/witness relocation scenario in his head.

Dawn continued twisting her hair and sighed. Great, now he thought she was a total basket case. Stupid Buffy. Stupid unoriginal demon kidnappers. "No, it's totally fine. I'm used to it by now. Buffy's just obsessively overprotective and feels the compulsive need to act as my bodyguard whenever I go anywhere I haven't been before."

She didn't feel the need to mention the tracking device Willow had implanted under her skin after she'd been taken for the fifth time in seven months as bait for trap to capture the "real" slayer. Buffy and Willow were just overreacting. Besides, it had been almost a year since the last time she'd been kidnapped.

Daniel grimaced. Sounded like the sister was a candidate for the psychiatric ward. And what kind of parents named their kid Buffy, anyway?

Dawn interrupted his musings. "Hang on while I check when she can come, okay?" Before he could answer, there was a clunk as Dawn put the phone down followed by some quiet murmuring.

He began tapping his fingers on the desk and began to feel even more positive about his chances of getting Dawn to work for the SGC. It would give her the perfect opportunity to be away from her sister. After all, whatever happened to her couldn't be that bad–even if it was mafia related, it's not like they could send hit men to Chulak to find her. Though he did smile at the scenario–some wiseguy in a black pin-striped suit surrounded by Jaffa and staff weapons looking hopelessly confused.

"Okay, I'm back."

"I could tell. When would be convenient?"

"Buffy said that anytime is fine for her, and I'm completely open, so that's easy. I'm really looking forward to seeing Riley again, so this is like a two for one sale, but on trips. There's some cliche about holding hands and birds in bushes that's supposed to fit here, but it never really made sense to me."

Daniel grinned. Holding hands and birds in bushes? Wait'll Jack got hold of her. But...rewind a second..."You know Riley Finn?"

Wasn't she supposed to? Oops. She had such problems remembering whose secret lives she knew, whose she didn't and whom she could talk to about them. She swallowed. "Yes."

"How?"

"Buffy dated him. How do you know Riley?" From her conversation with Riley, Dawn already knew that they worked together, but she didn't know what they did there. Buffy, Willow and Xander wondered all the time about what could be going on in Colorado that required Riley's special skills. Here might be her chance to find out. It had to be something really interesting if they needed a linguist/anthropologist often enough to keep Dr. Jackson around on a regular basis.

"He's on my team for a special classified project. Obviously I didn't realize that you knew each other. I said something yesterday about the slayer myth, he made an impressively quick retreat from the commissary, and I haven't seen or heard from him since."

"Oh, for crying out loud..."

Daniel let out an involuntary chuckle at hearing Jack O'Neill's customary phrase from the young woman while Dawn muttered something incomprehensible on the other end of the phone. Once she slowed down enough for him to understand what she was saying, he recognized the Latin. The translation made him laugh again–she called Riley a closed-mouth son of a bitch and threatened to knock him unconscious with a cricket bat.

"Why a cricket bat?"

At Daniel's query, Dawn stopped her tirade and abruptly remembered that her potential advisor was on the other end of the line and that he'd understood every word she'd said. "Because it's way heavier with more hitting surface area than a baseball bat, but generally non-lethal."

Daniel rolled his eyes. Ah. Of course. She'd fit in at the SGC just fine. He'd be lucky if Jack and Teal'c didn't adopt her.

"Dr. Jackson?" Dawn twisted her hair again and sighed. Nice interview technique, Summers. Very catchy. Maybe she'd write a book.

"Yes?"

"Can we pretend my little rant never happened?"

Daniel grinned. He could practically hear her blushing. Whether Dawn agreed to join the SGC or not, he'd agree to supervise her project. He hadn't had this entertaining a conversation in months–Jack was busy being a General and Sam didn't speak Latin, inadvertently or otherwise. "Sure. Um...I'd like to talk to you about Riley for a minute or two, if I may?"

"Shoot." Here was a subject she could talk knowledgeably about, even if she was probably supposed to be discussing her project and qualifications. Obviously Dr. Jackson didn't do much interviewing.

"Okay...your sister dated him?"

"Yup. For a little more than a year when they were in college. They were totally flirty for a few months before that, except for when she almost married Spike that time. They dated until they imploded and he moved to South America."

Spike? Flirty? Imploded? With Riley Finn, a man who practically made Teal'c look talkative? It was now official. His curiosity about Dawn's sister would drive him insane until he met the woman. "South America, huh? Must have been some break-up."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Oh, you have no idea. Swelling dramatic music, a cross-town run, black military helicopters flying off into the night..."

Military helicopters? She must have been speaking figuratively. "But she's looking forward to seeing him?"

"Yeah, they're better now." Dawn grimaced. She hadn't actually lied to Dr. Jackson. Saying Buffy's and Riley's relationship was better was definitely the truth, but the truth was still pretty relative.

Daniel cleared his throat, at a conversational impasse. He wanted to know more about his teammate but didn't really want to stoop to gossiping to get the information. So he did a Jack and went for non-committal instead. "Mmm hmmm."

Dawn continued, "Anyway, if you want to know more about that, you should probably ask Riley. Or Buffy when she gets there, but that's so definitely not her best ex-boyfriend story. But that's so not the point. Where were we? Oh, yeah, we were talking plane tickets. So, when are we talking about?"

She heard some rustling while Dr. Jackson checked a calendar. "How's next week for you?"

"We're completely open. Not having jobs definitely helps with availability."

Daniel grinned. "I've had that kind of availability myself, unfortunately. I'll e-mail you the flight information in the next day or two, okay?"

"That's fine."

"It's been...intriguing...talking to you, Dawn."

"Um, thanks, I think. I'm looking forward to meeting you in person."

Dawn hung up the phone and wandered into the living room, picked up her abandoned apple and sat on the couch. Buffy lowered her magazine and looked at her sister.

"So, how'd it go? When are we going? Where are we going?"

Dawn rolled her eyes at Buffy and crunched into her apple. "It went okay. We'll be going sometime next week, I think, and the address I have for him is in Colorado Springs, Colorado, so I assume that's where we'll be going. Ugh...many, many hours of plane travel...wish Will could just teleport us...Oh, yeah, and he thinks you're insane and that I'm completely unable to take care of myself because there's a rule about not being able to go off on my own."

"Three words, Dawn. Constant demonic kidnapping." Before Dawn could launch into the newest version of this familiar argument, Buffy continued, "So, other than me being a candidate for the psycho ward and you being dependent..."

Dawn sighed. Being the youngest sucked. "He didn't know we knew Riley, so that was a little strange. It actually sounds like Ri hasn't said much about anything about us, even though I told him he could."

"Damn it. He's been there, what, a year? Yeah, he's fine and dealing with Sam's death well my ass!"

Buffy stood up and began to pace back and forth, muttering to herself. Xander and Dawn had kept in semi-regular contact with Riley and Sam since the utter humiliation of the "Doc" incident, but they'd been checking on him more often in the year since Sam's death. Xander had told her just the other day that Riley seemed to be coming out of his funk, that something he was working on was making him more "himself" than he'd been since Sam had died at the hands of Iraqi insurgents.

Buffy had been relieved–she couldn't bring herself to completely forgive her ex-boyfriend for past offenses, but that didn't mean she wanted him to wallow in misery for the rest of his life, either. She cursed again as she paced–apparently Riley's e-mails to Xander had all been a big, honking act. Stupid macho Riley.

Privately, Dawn felt that her sister wasn't the best person to be muttering about someone else's inability to get over a significant other's death. Sure, Spike was back now and they weren't dating anymore and hadn't technically been dating at the time of his jewelry-wearing existentialist exit, but it wasn't like she'd been all sanity-having until she got his phone call telling her that. Then there was her complete and total irrationality after Angel's death, definitely deserving of its own day on Buffy's non-existent therapist's couch.

Muttering to herself now and knowing from experience that it would take her sister a few minutes to calm back down, Dawn stalked into the kitchen and returned with peanut butter and a knife. She returned to her seat on the couch and waited impatiently for Buffy to return to her armchair, tapping her foot and spreading the peanut butter on the outside of the apple. Finished, she took a bite, grimaced, and returned to the kitchen.

Buffy stopped pacing in mid-stride, distracted by her sister's apparent retreat in the face of rant. "Now what?"

"My apple is seriously lacking in raisiny goodness. Be right back."

Buffy shook her head, still utterly confounded by her sister's food preferences. Seriously, what on earth had the monks been smoking when they made her? Dawn returned with a small box of raisins and began to smoosh them into the peanut butter. When she was apparently satisfied with the apple/peanut butter/raisin ratio, she took another bite of the apple, munching contentedly.

"So...you were talking to Daniel Jackson..."

"Oh, yeah, right. He'll send us the tickets."

"Cool." They lived on money from the Council accounts these days, but Buffy still wasn't completely comfortable spending it. She snagged a raisin from her sister and munched idly. "How'd he sound? Old? Young? Cute?"

Dawn sighed and took another bite. Buffy had called a three year moratorium on dating herself, but she dated vicariously by interrogating Dawn about every man with whom she came into contact. It got kind of aggravating. "Kinda medium aged, actually. Totally watcher tweed at first but he loosened up. Tagged my rant in Latin and translated it enough to ask a question about why I wanted to bean Riley with a cricket bat. I'm sure I could have been less professional, but I don't know exactly how."

Buffy thought for a minute. "Well, you could have dumped a huge, old, and very stinky book entitled 'Vampyre' on the circulation desk in the Sunnydale High library in front of a complete stranger."

Grinning, Dawn looked at her sister. "Thanks. I feel much better."

Buffy grinned in return. "No problem."


	4. Partial Disclosure

Spoilers: Seasons 1-4 of Angel; All of BtVS (including 'Chosen'); Seasons 1-8 of Stargate SG-1

Pairings: Wes/Fred; Sam/Jack; Daniel/Buffy (Eventually...plus others to come)

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

A/N: Yuck, I hate exposition. Thanks for your patience while the SGC characters are brought up to speed.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Riley looked around at his teammates and superior officer. They were staring at him. He took a mouthful of water from his glass and swallowed slowly. General O'Neill was to his right, Daniel Jackson to his left, Colonel Carter was to O'Neill's right, and Teal'c sat next to Colonel Carter. The staring continued. So much for this being a run-of-the-mill briefing. O'Neill had called him into the briefing room under the guise of preparing for their next mission. When Riley got there, he'd learned that Daniel was thinking of hiring Dawn to work as a civilian consultant for the SGC and that this was the brain-picking meeting he'd been dreading since last Monday.

Finally, Daniel spoke. "So, you know Dawn Summers."

"Yes. I dated her older sister while I was in college. I was Buffy's TA for Psych. 101. When their mother got sick, I spent a lot of time with Dawn." At Teal'c's questioning look, Carter leaned over and whispered a brief explanation of what a TA and Psych. 101 were. He nodded in response.

Jack consulted the extremely thin folder in front of him. "At UC Sunnydale."

Riley nodded, reluctant to answer questions that they weren't asking him. Years after the fact, anything related to the Initiative was still highly classified. He didn't want to say anything inadvertently that would get him court-martialled. The U.S. government had taken enough from him–he refused to spend the rest of his life in Leavenworth.

Carter spoke up at this point. "Sunnydale. The news said that the town disappeared in the wake of an earthquake about five years ago."

"Yes."

She pursed her lips and looked to Daniel for confirmation. Apparently his psychic radar was on the fritz, since he had no idea what she was looking for and merely shrugged in response. "And the really strange thing about that, if I remember correctly, was that there was zero recorded seismic activity reported on that day. Not just in California, but on the entire west coast. The explanation just doesn't make sense."

That statement obviously peaked Daniel's interest. He sat up straight and was going to say something when O'Neill interrupted.

"You checked the seismic activity reports? Geez, Carter, you really need a hobby." O'Neill ignored the look from his 2IC that said seismology was a hobby and continued his interrogation...er...debriefing of Finn. "And you know about this slayer myth thing? I assume you're not talking about the metal band?"

After smiling briefly at the return of the familiar bad joke, Riley inwardly cursed his stupidity for making his abrupt and completely non-sneaky exit from lunch a week ago. He couldn't have been less covert if he'd been wandering around cemeteries looking for vamps while munching on a bag of Doritos.

Here was where the explanations started to get sticky. He hadn't counted on Sam Carter knowing about the lack of seismic activity, although maybe he should have. When it came to science, it seemed like the woman knew everything. The major networks and AP wire, on the other hand, hadn't even questioned the cover story. "It's not a myth."

Daniel looked like he'd just been shot someplace unpleasant with a zat and sat up even straighter. "It's not a myth? Then what is it?"

"It's the truth. Those first person accounts that you were so excited about? They were written by men called Watchers. Their job, their only job, was to provide information and training to their assigned slayer."

Daniel removed his glasses and placed them on the table, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "And a slayer is what, again?"

Another sip of water. "A female warrior, genetically predestined to fight the forces of darkness."

"The electric company?" Carter snorted at O'Neill's remark. Riley shook his head. Apparently the General was forgiven for his earlier comment about her lack of hobbies.

"Vampires, primarily. Occasionally some demons. An apocalypse every once in a while."

Teal'c's eyebrow rose in question. Maybe. Anyway, it was up. "RileyFinn, what is a vampire?"

"Undead bloodsucking traitorous creature-feature assholes." Teal'c nodded solemnly.

Jack grinned. "Oh, like the Tok'ra."

Before Daniel or Sam could interrupt and defend their sometime allies, Riley continued, smirking, "No. More actual bloodsucking, generally less treachery. Usually they're pretty direct. Or their evil plan's so obvious that they might as well tell you what they're doing. Think of an Unas, but with a less charming personality. And sometimes, if you're really, truly unlucky, a cockney accent and peroxide blond hair."

Teal'c nodded understandingly. As if anything Riley was saying made sense. "Indeed."

Before Riley could continue, Carter spoke again, sure of her scientific knowledge. After all, it had never failed her before. "Vampires and demons don't exist, Riley. They're fictional creatures glamorized by the entertainment industry. They're the villains in horror movies. Dracula. Frankenstein's monster. Dr. Jekyll. They're not real."

Riley blushed slightly. "Actually, Colonel, I met Dracula. He made a friend of mine his butt monkey. Er...begging your pardon for the language, General, Colonel, but that's what my friend said Dracula did to him. I never really got all the particulars, but I think eating live spiders was involved. I couldn't tell you about the monster or Dr. Jekyll, since I never saw them face to face or knew anyone who did."

O'Neill's mouth fell open and his eyes lit up like a kid with a new bike and a free afternoon. Carter made a face at the idea of eating live spiders. "That's awesome." He'd get more information out of Finn about Dracula and the whole butt monkey spider eating thing when they weren't in a briefing. Maybe over a couple of beers–this was a guy who evidently had a bunch of war stories that were at least as weird, if not weirder, than his own.

Not nearly as enchanted by the possibilities as O'Neill, Sam couldn't let it go. "How can you be sure that the stories aren't really talking about the Unas and Goa'uld and just calling them vampires and demons?"

Riley heaved a large sigh of frustration and rubbed his temples. "Other than the whole 'Crap, that's Dracula?' experience, you mean? Trust me, Colonel, they're real. I've never read or even seen the journals that Dawn sent to Dr. Jackson, but I've met and held conversations with vampires and demons. Now that I've experienced the fuzzy happy bunniness that is the Goa'uld, I can tell you that they're completely different kettles of stuff to worry about."

Still disbelieving but unable to marshal a logical argument in the face of Riley's greater experience and absolute certainty, Carter shut her mouth with a snap. Desperate, she fall back on the 'What the hell, it works for O'Neill' approach to debating. "Riley, they can't be real. It's ridiculous. Someone would have said something. Newspapers. Police reports. Smoke signals. Hell, I don't know, anything! The government would have told someone about it."

Riley shot Carter a look. "With due respect, Colonel Carter, you mean the way they told everyone about the Stargate? Because I was just watching the news..."

"Easy there, Finn." O'Neill frowned at the man, who was bordering on insubordination. Before this discussion, he hadn't even known the guy had a sense of humor, let alone a temper. "I'm sure Carter didn't mean the general public, because that would be stupid and shortsighted, which she isn't."

That statement earned him a glare from Carter. He gave an affronted sniff and lifted his chin in the air. Fine, see if he leapt to defend her honor again. He continued, "Does the government know about this?"

"Yes."

"Is there a classified program underground somewhere to deal with the problem?"

Riley blinked and looked directly into O'Neill's eyes. "No. And I can't really tell you anything else about that–you should probably ask the President those questions."

O'Neill digested that statement and all of its implications. He'd call both Hammond and the President after this meeting. "So, basically, what you're telling me is that the entire fate of the world rests in the hands of one woman? What the hell kind of dumbass system is that?"

"Cool." Feeling much more empowered than she'd been when she'd entered the room a half hour earlier, Carter grinned before she could help herself. O'Neill stuck his tongue out at her.

Knowing his superior officers and how quickly SG-1 briefings could degenerate into chaos, Riley spoke quickly, but deliberately. This wasn't news that would go down easily. It hadn't for him, at least. "Not really, Colonel. Most of the time, the female warrior's a young girl. Like fifteen years old young. Sometimes even younger–twelve, thirteen. There are reports of slayers living to the ripe old age of thirty, but generally they only last a year or two before the next one is called."

O'Neill's jaw tightened and a vein in his temple began to throb at the idea of young girls in battle. "Called? What the hell does that mean?"

Riley swallowed again and inhaled. He'd heard rumors of O'Neill's personal history and was aware of the kind of issues this might bring up for him. "Until recently, there's been only one slayer at a time–when the active slayer dies, the next one down the line is 'called,' or has her genetic abilities turned on."

Becoming increasingly disturbed by the entire slayer mythos, O'Neill glared at Riley, as if it was all the young officer's fault. "Exactly what kind of genetic abilities are we talking about here?"

Riley frowned as he tried to remember all the details, mentally crossing his fingers and hoping that by revealing this information he wasn't setting Buffy, Faith, and all the other slayers up for government experimentation. "Increased strength, speed and stamina, accelerated healing, occasionally they have prophetic dreams, heightened sight and hearing, and the ability to physically sense vampires."

O'Neill grimaced. "Sweet. And all they have to do in exchange is spend their childhood fighting the bogeyman in the closet and characters from horror movies. Not that they get to actually decide to make the exchange or anything..." He ran a hand through his gray hair, leaving spikes sticking up, trying to ignore mental images of Cassie and Charlie doing battle with the monsters under the bed. He sighed and looked at Riley. "Do they get any training, or are they left on their own to fend for themselves while these Watcher guys take notes and fill out forms?"

Riley winced at O'Neill's description of the Watchers. From what he understood from Buffy, the guys before Giles and Wesley had been very hands-off, note-taking kind of people. Thankfully, he didn't have to tell the general that. "Usually slayers, or those targeted as potential slayers, were taken away from their families and trained in battle techniques and arcane knowledge from the time they were toddlers. I'm told there's also a handbook, but no one I know has ever seen it."

O'Neill was speechless. Carter and Daniel looked dumbfounded. Teal'c was the one who responded. "It is not unheard of to take young warriors from their families and train them as a unit to increase their effectiveness in battle. It was a common practice on Chulak. I believe that you use such measures in your own armed forces as well, do you not, O'Neill?"

That question was apparently too much for Jack. He stood and began to pace. He turned to Teal'c. "For crying out loud! It's completely different. We don't start training them until they're eighteen years old. And they choose to fight! We don't kidnap them and raise them knowing that their entire lives are about death and destruction; we don't leave them without friends and family for support."

He looked blindly at Carter for a minute, lost in alternate scenarios, then turned to Riley, running his hand restlessly through his hair again. "Christ, how do they handle it? They should be playing with dolls, talking on the phone, dreaming about what to wear to a dance, learning how to rebuild carburetors and change flat tires–shit...doing anything else...not living nothing but weapons, war and the constant fight for survival. Babies. They're nothing but babies..."

Riley looked at his superior officer. "It's all they knew."

This quiet, simple statement sapped O'Neill's remaining energy. He stopped pacing and sat in the chair next to Carter's. She looked at him questioningly and moved to put her hand on his arm in support but he shook his head infinitesimally and she withdrew, linking both hands in her lap.

Daniel, uncharacteristically quiet up to this point, ignored the byplay between Sam and Jack and turned to his teammate. "You've spoken of them in the past tense several times now. What's changed?"

Riley inhaled sharply and damned Daniel for both his linguistic skills and his insight. This was a lot more detail than he wanted to get into with his teammates. "About five years ago, there was a...change...in the...procedures...involved in the selection process. There are now thousands of them."

"Thousands of little girls against vampires and demons?" O'Neill cursed fluently at the thought. The idea of thousands of young, innocent girls fighting an unwinnable fight was horrifying–like sending a class of pony-tailed middle schoolers into the jungles of Vietnam.

Riley was flustered. Maybe this explanation should have waited. It would have been better coming from Dawn or Giles. Even Buffy. He thought for a second. Okay, maybe not Buffy.

"They're not so little now. The girls, I mean, not the vampires. Not that the vampires are little, but...anyway, the...um...the selection process is different. It was really chaotic for a couple of years, but now the girls don't get 'chosen' until their eighteenth birthday. They're allowed to have contact with their family and friends but they're required to attend a special training facility–kind of like a boarding school."

"Or boot camp." Carter glanced at O'Neill from under her lashes, worried because he hadn't said anything obnoxious or sarcastic in a couple of minutes. He definitely wasn't pleased with what he was hearing, but at least he was taking Riley seriously. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what kind of weaponry do they have?"

One corner of Riley's mouth quirked up as he remembered Buffy kicking his ass back when they were still dating. Her effortless attack and all that energy and purpose. "Swords, crossbows, knives, quarter staffs, holy water, sticks, chairs, a wicked looking scythe, but usually they just use their fists and feet." O'Neill cursed again, having just armed his hypothetical middle schoolers with nothing but rocks before dropping them in the middle of the Vietnamese jungle.

"Um...going back to Dawn Summers for a minute...since she's the woman I'm thinking about hiring and bringing into the SGC...is she a slayer?" O'Neill looked up, startled by Daniel's question. That thought hadn't occurred to him. Did he even want a slayer at the SGC? Something to ponder later.

Riley thanked his lucky stars for that question. It was close, but he wouldn't have to lie to answer it. "No, she's not."

"So where did she get these diaries?" Daniel's blue eyes were burning into Riley's, impelling him to tell the truth.

"She knows most of the slayers." Which was true–there were so many now that even a busybody like Dawn couldn't lay claim to knowing every single slayer. Plus, most of them lived in Cleveland, so Dawn didn't see the ones she knew that often.

Somehow Daniel knew there was more to it than that. "And?"

"She's in training to be a Watcher."

"Shit. Seriously?" Daniel was sorry he'd asked. Even if hearing him swear had brought a grin to O'Neill's face and made Teal'c raise an eyebrow. Carter still looked concerned.

Riley nodded so there couldn't possibly be any misunderstanding or wishful thinking. "Yes."

It was Daniel's turn to run his hand through his hair in frustration. He'd be up and pacing in a minute. "Any chance she'd change her mind?"

Riley glanced at Daniel and shook his head. "I wouldn't think so. She was pretty gung ho about it last time I spoke with her, but she might be willing to give the SGC a shot if you tell her the truth about what's going on."

Daniel put his glasses back on and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You were speaking metaphorically about the apocalypses, right?"

Riley looked a bit sheepish and proud at the same time. "Um...final answer?"

"Spit it out, Finn." O'Neill wanted to bring an end to this briefing. He had a few choice things to say to the President and General Hammond.

"There have been at least eight that I'm aware of, one that I was personally there for. Although, now that I think about it, maybe Adam was more of a pain in the ass than a true apocalypse...you'd have to ask Dawn for the most recent accounting when she gets here. They've got an equation and a one hundred point scale and everything."

O'Neill turned to Daniel and smirked. "Still think that repeatedly saving the world is going to be enough to bring your errant linguist into the fold? You better come up with something bigger."

Bigger than saving the world? At a loss, Daniel looked at Riley. "Any ideas?"

"She likes chocolate..."

O'Neill slammed his head into the table and looked up at his premier team. "Get out. All of you. Carter, don't go wandering too far–I'll want to talk to you after I get off the phone with the President and Hammond. Daniel, don't you have a linguist to pick up at the airport?"

Daniel looked at his watch. He had about an hour before the Summers' women's flight got into Denver. He'd just make it. "Yeah. Riley, you doing anything right now? I wouldn't mind the company on the drive. Plus you know them already, so you can help me through all the getting to know you awkwardness." The drive would also give him more time to pick Riley's brain about Dawn and what might make her choose to change her life.

Riley shifted in his seat. Right, he knew there was something he'd forgotten to tell Daniel. Like his entire emotional history with Buffy–who was definitely a slayer. And that the problem wasn't going to be the 'getting to know you' awkwardness–it was going to be the 'I already know what you look like naked' awkwardness and the 'I accidentally walked in on you after you'd just finished having sex with an idiotic blond vamp' awkwardness. Maybe Daniel wouldn't notice. Then he remembered the archeologist's questions during the briefing. Shit, maybe he would.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Let me get my jacket." He stood and walked towards the locker rooms, dragging his feet like he was on his way to the guillotine.

The rest of SG-1 stood and walked out of the briefing room–Carter to her lab, Teal'c to his quarters. Daniel was waiting for the elevator to arrive when he heard O'Neill's voice. "Daniel?"

"Yeah, Jack?" Turning, Daniel waited for the comment–Jack's eyes were too bright for this not to be something asinine.

"Next time you need more personnel, do me a favor and just kidnap them, okay?"

"Whatever you say, Jack." Shaking his head, Daniel turned back towards the elevator as Jack closed the door to his office and walked towards the red phone.


	5. Interludes

Spoilers: Seasons 1-4 of Angel; All of BtVS (including 'Chosen'); Seasons 1-8 of Stargate SG-1

Pairings: Wes/Fred; Sam/Jack; Daniel/Buffy (Eventually...plus others to come)

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Jack poked his head into Carter's office and grinned. He could always count on Carter to lift his mood, unless she was the reason for his bad mood in the first place, of course. The lieutenant colonel in question was leaning all the way over the granite tabletop in front of her, balancing herself on one foot as she reached for a screwdriver that was about three inches away from her outstretched right hand. Some kind of technological thing was in pieces to her right. He admired the view for a second, then spoke.

"Carter!"

Sam's head whipped around and she landed face first on her lab table with a rapid exhalation of breath. Discombobulated, she looked at O'Neill. He was smirking at her. Refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her out of sorts, she straightened her posture, hair, and attitude in one smooth movement, checked her watch, then the clock on the wall. She'd expected him to bother her almost three hours ago. Could it be that he'd just gotten off the telephone with Hammond and the President? And weren't Daniel and Riley supposed to be back with the Summers sisters by now? "Sir?"

"Feel the need for some fresh air?"

"Uh?" Swift, Carter. She shook her head to free it of all the physics equations she'd been using to keep her mind away from demons and vampires for the last few hours. "Fresh air, sir?"

He grinned at her response and grabbed her jacket off the back of her office door. "Let's take a walk."

Carter looked at the clock again. Almost seven o'clock, which meant it was dark out. Not the best time to take a walk and admire the scenery. "Sir?"

"Shake a leg, Carter. Stuff to do." Sam took her jacket from Jack and followed him out the door, enjoying the view. Sure, they'd left things "in the room" after the whole Zay'tarc incident, but that didn't mean she couldn't relish the sight of Brigadier General Jack O'Neill in a pair of jeans and a leather jacket.

She sighed and decided to distract herself from her decidedly non-regulation thoughts. "Sir, what's this really about?"

Clearly overstimulated about something, he wagged a finger in her face as the elevator doors closed. "Ah ah ah, Carter. We're going to take a walk. You work too hard. Plus, the exercise will be good for you."

Sam's mouth dropped open in surprise. Jack hadn't just said what she thought he had, did he? She surreptitiously checked out her own rear end, only to find that it was exactly where she'd left it that morning. In any event, it certainly hadn't stopped him from checking it out when they were in her lab a few minutes ago. She hit him on the arm.

"Ow!" He rubbed the arm with his left hand. "What was that for?"

She looked at him like he'd grown another head. She would not call her CO an ass...she would not call her CO an ass..."Sir, you were married...shouldn't you know by now not to tell a woman she needs to exercise more?"

"Wha?" He looked confused at her question, then replayed what he'd said to Carter and looked at things from her skewed point of view. Shit. Teach him not to pay attention to what came out of his mouth when he was with her. Sometimes he forgot that Carter, being a girl, might have typical girl hang-ups. Definitely time for some serious backpedaling. "Carter, I didn't mean...you misunderstood..."

Carter's glare told him he had made another verbal mis-step. He backed into the corner of the elevator just as the doors opened. She stalked out of the elevator and headed towards the base security post, O'Neill following at her heels and trying desperately to make amends. The lieutenant at the gate figured out the gist of what was going on and bit her lips to hide her smile as she stood at attention and saluted them.

Once they had left the complex, O'Neill grabbed Sam's arm. The look in her eyes when she glared at his hand should have melted it off at the wrist. "Look, Carter...Sam. I'm sorry, okay. I just meant that you spend most of your on-world days in your lab, and there have been a lot of those lately, and I thought that...maybe you'd like to get out and wander around, listen for birds, sniff the exhaust, that kind of thing."

He looked around at the parking lot and continued in a stage whisper, "Plus, if we walk around, it'll be more difficult for the parabolic mics to pick us up if anyone's listening. That's the real reason I wanted to take a walk, Carter. Y'know, not that I wouldn't want to take a walk with you...er...nevermind...forget I said that last thing, Carter."

She smirked. One day she'd be able to stay angry with Jack, but it looked like today wasn't going to be that day. "It's forgotten, sir."

He continued in his regular speaking voice, trying very hard not to look at his 2IC. "Uh, okay...good. So, I just got off the phone with Hammond and the President about this whole slayer..." Jack waved his hand in the air, searching for the perfect word. "...thing, and hoo-boy, there's a lot Finn left out. Plus, if you would remind me to kick Daniel when he gets back from the airport, I'd appreciate it."

This request came once a week in one form or another, so it didn't surprise Sam. It's not like Jack carried through on the threat more than once a month. "Why?"

Sam felt movement to her left as O'Neill adjusted his baseball cap. "This is all his damn fault. We wouldn't know, or need to know, about any of this crap, if he wasn't so friggin' brilliant. Damn it."

Carter was thankful it was dark enough that he couldn't see her grin. At any given time, Daniel Jackson's brain was either the SGC's biggest asset or its most dangerous liability and everyone on SG-1 knew it. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing which one it was on any given day until you were in the middle of a situation–and by then it was usually too late. "What did General Hammond say, sir?"

"Not much. Never heard of Riley Finn or either Summers girl. He's coming in to see his granddaughters in a couple of weeks. He forwarded me directly to the President, who handed me off to the Joint Chiefs for a conference call. They didn't have much information about Dawn Summers."

Sam nodded. "That makes sense, sir. It's not like the government really cares what she's been up to–she's probably relatively young, if her older sister dated Riley in college."

"I guess I said that wrong, Carter. What I meant was that they couldn't find any information on Dawn Summers before she turned fifteen–no social security number, no birth certificate, no pre-kindergarten shot records, no enrollment records, no report cards, nada. Her parents' divorce decree doesn't mention any custody or support arrangements for her, either. After fifteen, everything's there and she's completely documented. Like she dropped in out of thin air or something. She's twenty-two, by the way."

Weird. Kinda like when Cassie had to tell everyone she was from Toronto. "Maybe she was born at home and homeschooled..."

O'Neill shook his head. "There'd still be records for that, not to mention her birth certificate. Plus, her sister's records are all there from the minute she was born–and the later years are pretty damn colorful, if I do say so myself–suspected arson of her first high school in LA, wanted for questioning in conjunction with three different suspicious deaths in Sunnydale, multiple hospital visits, high school mysteriously exploding at her graduation ceremony...y'know, the usual.."

Jack knew he sounded a little too much like a proud father and not enough like a disapproving adult member of society, but he couldn't help it. From what the Joint Chiefs had said, Buffy Summers and her friends kicked serious demon and vampire ass on a regular basis. He was still uncomfortable on many levels about a system that made a gaggle of teenage girls responsible for saving the world, but it sounded like Summers had it down to a science.

He grinned at Carter, even though she couldn't see it, and narrowly avoided tripping on an overgrown tree root. So much for special ops training. Next time he'd remember to bring a friggin' flashlight. "Oh, yeah, and she's The Slayer."

Sam blinked. She could hear the capitalization of the title. "Oh. Riley didn't mention that."

"Yeah, tell me about it. There's a ton of stuff he didn't 'mention.'" Sam could hear the air quotes. "For starters, the whole thing is classified beyond anything they've ever thought of to hide the Stargate Project. No computer files, salt the earth, fill it with cement and set it on fire kind of crap. They called it the Initiative..."

An hour later, Sam's head was spinning, full of O'Neill's story of a secret government project run by the Army; scientists who thought more of the potential than the implications of their experiments, super-soldiers, slayers and a demonic Frankenstein's monster run amok that could only be defeated through the use of magic. And she thought the Goa'uld sucked. Okay, no argument, they did suck, but she thought this might be at least as bad. At least the Goa'uld died when you shot them. Sometimes even permanently.

Lost in thought, she didn't notice that O'Neill had resumed speaking. "...orders to recruit anyone from their organization who wants to come..."

Whoa, wait a minute. "I'm sorry, sir. I was thinking. What was that?"

O'Neill smiled, well used to Carter's mental wanderings when she was processing information through to its logical conclusion. "Heh. Figures that would catch your attention, Carter. I have orders from the President to bring anyone I can get from their group into the SGC, ASAP. If we can get 'em, they're supposed to help us tip the hell out of the balance of power with the Goa'uld. The President's advisors and the other yahoos at the Pentagon don't see a downside to the plan, since there's thousands of slayers able to take care of the demon situation these days. They think this organization won't miss a couple of its people."

There was something about this that was bothering Carter. "If they're so incredible, why wasn't anyone recruited earlier?"

"Well, until five years ago, there was only one incredibly over-worked slayer on the books–Buffy Summers. I guess there was another one for a year or so, Faith something, but she turned herself in and spent a few years in Stockton until she escaped about six years ago. No one knows what happened to her. Current thinking in lofty circles is that she's dead."

"What'd this...Faith...do?"

"Murder, assault with a deadly...a couple of other misdemeanors."

"Oh."

"So, anyway, until five years ago, there was really only one slayer actively...slaying. Then there's this huge battle and poof!–thousands of slayers. The rumor is that none of these girls knew this was coming and were scattered all over the world. The federal government bean counters, in their ultimate wisdom, decided to be cost-effective and let this group pick up the tab for finding the girls, training them and generally getting their shit together. Plus, some of these girls were just too damn young to work at the SGC."

They were finishing the fourth lap around the complex. As the entrance to Cheyenne Mountain came into view, the lights from the parking lot illuminated them and Sam sneezed from the sudden brightness. "How young, sir?"

"I think the youngest was nine."

They walked in silence back to the SGC, deep in thought.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Meanwhile, at the Denver airport...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Do I have funny plane hair?"

Dawn glanced at her sister. Buffy's hair did look kind of knotted in the back from where she'd been sleeping against her seat and it was sticking up a little in other places. Dawn wasn't feeling particularly charitable at the moment, though–they'd missed their connection in Chicago and had to wait for the next plane to Denver, which was why they were over three hours late. She'd called Dr. Jackson to tell him about the delay, but he and Riley had already been at the airport. His impression of her had to be falling with every minute they sat in the visitor's area. "No, it's fine."

"Really?" Buffy ran a hand down the back of her hair, snagged it on the knot, shot her sister a dirty look and began looking for a restroom as they trudged through the terminal, exhausted from jet lag and hours of air travel.

"Come on, Buffy. He's already going to think I'm an immature, irresponsible idiot...can we please not keep him waiting any longer?"

Buffy sighed and gave in to Dawn's pleas. "Fine. Jump through a portal...make me see my ex with bad hair...the things I do for you..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cry me a river. Like I haven't been kidnapped twenty-six times by demons trying to get you to fight them or Will to reopen the Sunnydale hellmouth."

"Twenty-five. Sweet was all you and Xander. Klepto-girl."

Dawn gave her sister a shove. "Can we not bring up the whole klepto thing in front of my future advisor, please? And it's so twenty-six. You forgot about Angelus."

"Not hardly." Lost in memories for the moment, Buffy shivered involuntarily. Hands down, those were among the scariest hours of her life. Shortly after he'd killed Ms. Calendar, Angelus had decided to up his psychological attack on Buffy. He didn't do anything to the then twelve-year-old Dawn other than help her with her homework and feed her milk and cookies, knowing that Buffy's imagination would do all his work for him.

He'd dropped Dawn off after dark in perfect condition–Dawn hadn't known anything was wrong until years later, when she finally got the full story on the entire Angel/Angelus fiasco. Still, it was only a monk-implanted memory and hadn't really happened. "...and no fair bringing up stuff that happened before you existed."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever. Twenty-five. So much better than twenty-six..."

Still bickering, they passed the security checkpoint. Dawn, being taller, stretched up and began looking for someone who looked familiar. She smoothed her ponytail and adjusted her clothing. Finally, she saw Riley waving and looking around. He was standing next to another tall man in glasses in short hair and fatigues who was presumably Dr. Jackson.

Dawn waved back. He saw her and smiled, pointing towards she and Buffy. "Look, Buff, it's them! And whoa, when did Riley get hot!"

"You didn't think he was hot when I was dating him?" Dawn looked at her and raised both eyebrows. Hmmm. Maybe not the best response she could have come up with. She glanced at Riley's companion and whispered in her sister's ear, furiously trying to straighten her hair. "You're so dead later."

Daniel saw the two extremely attractive young women approach. One of them appeared to be waving at Riley Finn, who was apparently both an international man of mystery and an ex-demon hunter. If nothing else, the three hour wait had given them the opportunity to talk–not about the top secret project Riley obviously couldn't discuss, but about the younger man's life in Sunnydale.

For his part, Riley had felt more comfortable giving Daniel more personal information than he'd given O'Neill. First, Daniel didn't officially work for the military and wouldn't make any judgments about Riley's actions in that context. Second, Daniel wouldn't face repercussions for failing to obey orders to divulge information. Third, Daniel had experienced enough weird stuff in his own life to take everything Riley said with an open mind. Most importantly, though, Riley had been on enough missions with Daniel in the past year to trust the man not just with his life, but with the lives of his friends.

Daniel had been utterly fascinated by the stories he'd heard and was now coming to the conclusion that while vampires and demons weren't exactly cool, per se, they certainly presented an exciting opportunity for future study. He also thought that maybe the texts that hadn't been helpful in the fight with the Goa'uld would be helpful to the slayers. After all, saviors of the world had to work together, didn't they?

Daniel studied the women as they approached, trying to figure out from visual cues which one looked like she was fluent in a cornucopia of foreign languages. One woman was approximately 5'3" and blonde, dressed in a long skirt, blouse, and boots. She was carrying a huge awkwardly-shaped bag, seemed to be attempting to fix a serious case of bedhead and was shooting dirty looks at her sibling. The other woman was tall, willowy, brunette, and dressed in a navy pinstriped pantsuit, carrying a briefcase.

The women stopped in front of them and the brunette stuck out her hand. "Dr. Jackson? Hi, I'm Dawn Summers. We spoke on the phone?"

"Oh, thank goodness." Dawn snorted in amusement and Daniel immediately reddened with embarrassment. Riley looked like he was hiding a grin. Unfortunately, that blurted response had been out loud. The blonde was looked like she was going to rip his liver out of his abdomen with her bare hands. He'd managed to offend the woman before he'd even been formally introduced to her. That was probably a new record, but he'd have to check with Sam and Teal'c to be sure.

Riley, brave man that he was, immediately stepped into the conversational breach. "Buffy. It's good to see you again."

"Hi, Riley." He hugged her, attempting to pull her close. Obviously uncomfortable with that level of physical contact from her ex-boyfriend, Buffy kissed him briefly on the cheek, patted his back with her right hand, and stepped back.

Dawn rolled her eyes as she observed her sister and Riley. Not nearly so reticent, she hugged Riley tightly as soon as Buffy was out of the way, whispering in his ear, "You're a big honking liar, Riley. You're nowhere near fine. You've lost at least twenty pounds and you've got shadows behind your eyes. Not that you're not still gorgeous, of course. I'm not leaving town until you're better, no matter what happens with Dr. Jackson."

Riley looked vaguely startled as he stepped back from Dawn. When had Buffy's younger sister become so perceptive? He still remembered her as the girl he'd taken to the carousel and fed ice cream when she was dealing with Joyce's illness, but that image had been superseded.

Dawn had come into her own–she looked capable and professional and intelligence showed brightly from her blue eyes. Apparently he wasn't the only one who'd gone through some changes in the last five years. Initially he'd been a little skeptical about bringing the Dawn he remembered into the SGC program, but this woman looked like she could handle anything the world (or other worlds) threw at her.

Meanwhile, Daniel attempted to make peace with Dawn's sister. "Er, hi. I'm sorry about the way that came out before. I'm Daniel Jackson. I just meant that I need all the help I can get because I tend to get sucked into big projects and forget what else I'm supposed to be doing, like eating or sleeping or stuff like that, and Dawn looks so professional and you look so..."

He abruptly stopped rambling when he saw Buffy's arched eyebrow. "Were you about to say I look unprofessional, Dr. Jackson?"

Yes? No, probably not the right answer. Think, Jackson. You can do it. "Um, no. A little more rumpled, certainly..."

Buffy looked down at herself, grimaced, mumbled something about hanging Dawn from the highest turret and tugged on her blouse and skirt in a vain attempt to unwrinkle them, taking pity on Daniel. For a watcher-type he was totally easy on the eyes. He also reminded her of a combination of a young Giles and pre-wiccan Willow, which was a point in his favor. "I'm Buffy Summers."

They shook hands. "Glad to meet you, Buffy. It was nice of you to come to Colorado just so I could meet your sister." A little excessive, perhaps, but nice. The four of them began to walk towards baggage claim.

Dawn held a quickly whispered consultation with Riley from her position on his arm, then spoke to Daniel. "Since Riley gave you the four-one-one and you seem to be completely non-wiggy with it, I can tell you why she's really here."

Non-wiggy? Daniel became vaguely suspicious that Dawn had padded her resume. "Oh?"

Buffy grinned before Dawn could say anything. "Yeah. I'm here to keep her from being kidnapped by demons or vampires or something altogether ooky."

Ooky? Maybe the slaughter of the English language was an inherited condition. "Does that happen a lot?"

Buffy was still grinning, but Dawn was scowling at her sister as she adjusted her briefcase strap on her right shoulder. "It kind of depends on what you mean by 'a lot.' Twenty-five times in seven years."

It certainly sounded like a lot to Daniel. Even he hadn't been kidnapped that many times in seven years. He was about to say something along those lines to Buffy, then ask Dawn why she was such a hot commodity, when his cell phone rang. "Excuse me a minute..."

He stepped away from the baggage carousel and turned towards the windows. "Hello?"

"Hey Daniel."

"Hi, Jack. What's up?" Daniel wasn't worried that Jack had called him, since he didn't usually call him on his cell to talk about anything related to the SGC and anything non-SGC related couldn't be that big a deal.

"Nothing much. Just wanted to make sure your friends made it okay and that the airlines didn't lose their underwear."

"Uh huh." He turned and saw Buffy pull two enormous suitcases off the carousel. How long were they planning on staying? Their tickets had them returning to London that weekend. He shook his head as Dawn pulled a wheeled garment bag off the carousel next. Riley had offered to lift Dawn's suitcase, but she'd shaken her head negatively at him.

Jack could tell that Daniel was a little distracted. "Sam, Murray and I are dying to meet your friends. How does dinner at my place tomorrow night sound?"

"Okay. Wait, what?"

"We're having a barbecue at my house tomorrow night. Bring your friends."

"Why dinner?"

O'Neill rolled his eyes. "They've just made an extremely long plane trip, Daniel. It would be better if they weren't catatonic when we meet them. Drop them at their hotel tonight, they'll spend tomorrow asleep, then we'll gorge ourselves stupid on my back patio."

Daniel glanced back at Buffy, Dawn and Riley. Dawn was gesturing animatedly to Riley about something. Buffy was watching the windows and exits the way Jack and Teal'c tended to whenever they were someplace unfamiliar, looking for unseen threats. "I'll let them know."

"Good. Oh, and Daniel, I want to see you and Finn in my office tomorrow morning. Oh eight hundred. There's something we need to discuss before we kick back tomorrow night."

"Yes, Jack."


	6. Hail, Hail

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

A/N: Augh! This is the scene that would not end! As much as I want to hurry this story along, it seems determined to move at a slower pace.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Hail, Hail

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Riley knocked on the hotel room door, checked his watch and grimaced. He was running more than a half hour late to pick up Buffy and Dawn. SG-1 had gone through the 'gate this morning to investigate a planet that had fascinated Daniel but had no apparent military usefulness. They'd been promptly chased back to Earth by a bunch of angry villagers waving torches and yelling about demons and witchcraft.

The event itself wasn't that unusual, except that one of the villagers had gotten an arm tangled in the strap to Riley's P-90 and been pulled through the wormhole after them. They'd sent a MALP back through to the planet and returned the shell-shocked villager to his home as soon as they were certain it was safe to do so, but it had taken extra time.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It wasn't like Buffy would be ready anyway. Prompt had never been her thing. He knocked again.

Dawn opened the door, toothbrush in hand. "Hey, Riley. I'm running a little late, obviously. Buffy's ready, though."

Huh, imagine that. Probably a sign of impending apocalypse. He peeked into the hotel room, and sure enough, there she was, sitting in the upholstered chair by the window and flipping through channels on the television. She appeared to be fully dressed and groomed–she was wearing a pair of black slacks and a bright blue fuzzy sweater of some kind. Her hair was loose around her shoulders.

Dawn retreated to the bathroom and finished brushing her teeth. Riley stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. "Hi."

Buffy looked up at Riley and narrowed her eyes, studying him carefully. She and Dawn had spent over an hour dissecting Riley this evening and she had to give her younger sister credit–she seemed to have pegged him right on. He looked as good as ever, but Sam's death and whatever he was doing for a living these days had aged him–these days his eyes held as many secrets as Buffy's did. "Hi. You're late."

Riley shrugged. "Yeah, sorry about that. Got hung up at work."

She shrugged in return. "It happens, I guess."

The silence between them became awkward and the only sounds in the room were an infomercial and the sounds of Dawn brushing her teeth. Buffy broke first. "So, tell us about these friends of yours we're going to meet tonight–we didn't get a lot of time to talk on the way from the airport."

Actually, they hadn't had any opportunity to talk. Daniel and Dawn had spent most of the ride discussing the Watchers' diaries and Buffy had dozed while Riley drove them to the hotel.

Riley sat on the edge of one of the beds. "Well, you already know me."

Dawn grinned as she walked out of the bathroom, arms raised and hands busy as she braided her hair. "More or less."

Riley shot her a look. "Then there's Daniel, whom you met yesterday."

"Uh huh." Buffy nodded. Indiana Giles, up close and personal.

"Then there's General O'Neill. He's a good guy, if kind of obnoxious sometimes. Reminds me a lot of Xander, actually."

Dawn snorted. "They let a guy who reminds you of Xander be in charge of an Air Force base? Whose brilliant idea was that?"

Riley smiled in remembrance. It had been a shock to most of the SGC when Hammond had been promoted and Jack O'Neill had been promoted in his place, but no one had been as surprised as Jack O'Neill himself. "The President's, if I remember correctly."

"Okay...suddenly thinking I should have voted for the other guy..."

Grinning, Riley continued. "Then there's Samantha Carter. She's a Lieutenant Colonel with the Air Force, she's got a PhD in astrophysics, and she's the head of my team."

Buffy looked steadily at Riley. "So, basically, your boss is Wonder Woman."

Riley blushed. How to answer that? Or, more importantly, how to answer that in a way that wouldn't lead to either Sam Carter or Jack O'Neill kicking his ass if they heard about it. "Er..."

"You've been spending entirely too much time with Andrew, Buffy." Dawn interrupted as she walked to the dresser to get her jacket. Riley exhaled a sigh of relief. She rummaged for a minute, then began putting it on. "Actually, I guess Xander's the one with the Wonder Woman fetish...Andrew's way more into Princess Leia."

"Shocker, there. But that's also a big yes on the Xander front."

Dawn grinned at her sister. "That totally explains his thing for slayers, y'know?"

Buffy rolled her eyes at Dawn and stood, turning off the television as she did so. "Tell me about it. And me without my magic bracelets and invisible jet."

Riley opened the door and watched as the girls gathered their purses, stakes, bottles of holy water, double headed axe, and other assorted feminine paraphernalia. Dawn turned off the light as Riley pulled the door closed behind them, shaking his head. "Yeah. Way, way, way too much time on the phone with Xander." She turned to Riley. "So, Jack, Daniel, Samantha. Anyone else?"

"Yeah, don't call her Samantha. She's definitely Sam." How to explain his remaining teammate? O'Neill hadn't wanted Riley to break the news to them until the barbeque–he liked to see the look on people's faces when they learned they were sitting down to dinner with an alien. "Um...his name's Teal'c. He's not exactly what you'd call local..."

"Ooo...does he have a cute accent?" Dawn mentally rubbed her hands together in glee. If Spike had taught her nothing else, it was the potential sex appeal of a good foreign accent.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The car ride to General O'Neill's was rather uneventful. Dawn spent the time peppering Riley with inane questions about his teammates from the backseat of his Jeep while Buffy covertly studied her ex from the passenger seat and tried to remember the route from the hotel for future reference.

For his part, Riley answered Dawn's over-eager questions and studied Buffy. Dawn and Xander had dropped the occasional mention of her activities into their e-mails and phone calls, but they hadn't said how she had matured, both physically and apparently mentally.

When he'd seen her six years before, she'd been almost skeletal in appearance and seemed to be holding onto life by a few threads of sanity. The simple act of being in a room of friends and family caused her pain. She was working a demeaning job she hated and involved in a bizarre (to him anyway) love/hate relationship with a vampire she didn't like or trust.

It appeared that the fight with the First and its results had visibly changed Buffy. Physically, she was more curved than he remembered, and though she'd kill him for saying so, she was starting to develop faint laugh lines around her mouth and eyes. Better yet, she no longer walked as if she were Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on her slender shoulders until the end of eternity. Sharing the burden of slaying had indeed made the work lighter, at least judging by Buffy's appearance.

She still bore scars from her losses, though. In an unguarded e-mail written under the influence of one too many bottles of hard cider, Dawn had confided that something about the circumstances surrounding Spike's death on the Hellmouth had changed Buffy–she'd become quieter and more introspective around all of the Scoobies and Giles. Some of the quiet and stillness had disappeared after she found out that his sacrifice had been somewhat less than totally permanent, but she still wasn't completely the bouncy, perky self she'd been when Riley'd known her in college.

Idly, he wondered how much of that was because of Spike, how much was her mother's death, and how much was a residue of her own death and expulsion from heaven all those years before. He supposed it didn't really matter, but it did mean that he'd probably have to get to know her all over again. Assuming she'd let him, of course.

As Dawn paused for breath in her questioning and played with the radio dial, Riley remembered the conversation he'd had with O'Neill and the rest of SG-1 after their return from the airport. He was still somewhat dumbfounded that the people in the upper echelons of government wanted to pin the success of another top secret project on anyone even remotely connected to Buffy Summers, considering the raging mess that the Initiative project had turned into once she got involved.

Sighing, he pulled into General O'Neill's driveway. "We're here."

"Cool. Buffy, you got the thing from Willow?"

Blinking herself back to full alertness after zoning out the window, Buffy began rummaging through her purse. "Probably would have been better if you'd remembered to ask me that before we left the hotel, Dawn. I think I left it...oh, no, wait, here it is." She placed what looked like a Gameboy on the seat next to her while she unbuckled her seatbelt.

Riley picked it up and turned it over, trying not to groan. If it was really a Gameboy, they'd never be able to keep O'Neill's concentration focused enough to recruit Dawn properly. The rumor was that once upon a time, General Hammond had gone so far as to forbid his subordinate from having one on base until the man's backlog of reports had been turned in.

The odds were against it being only a video game, though. He knew Willow better than that–there was simply no way that the woman who had warned him that 'a vague disclaimer is no one's friend' would have sent Buffy and Dawn somewhere with only a hand held game as extra protection. "What is it really?"

"Bug finder."

He looked at it in a new light and turned it over. "Really? How good is it?"

"Will and Oz designed it."

"I don't think holy crap quite covers that..."

Buffy continued, smiling at Riley. "They're not dating–they just used the wonders of encryption, e-mail and attachments to design it. He's still in Tibet being all wolfy and laconic...she's still in England. And, y'know, all about the girl lovin'. And babbling. And not destroying the world. This is just the prototype. Not that we know anyone else who really wants one."

"Wow." He knocked on General O'Neill's door and made a mental note not to let Carter get near the gadget. She'd have it in pieces.

Jack opened the door, saw Riley and two young women on his doorstep, and wondered which one had actually asked for Daniel's help on purpose. They both looked so normal. Extremely young, but normal. The blonde kind of looked like a cheerleader. "'bout time you got here, Finn."

"Sorry for the delay, sir." Riley walked into O'Neill's house. He had been there once or twice before, but never quite got over the airiness of the place–lots of windows and high wooden beams that reflected his superior's love of the outdoors. "General Jack O'Neill, I'd like to introduce you to Dawn and Buffy Summers."

They entered Jack's home and murmured greetings as they shook hands. Jack was shaking Dawn's hand when he noticed Buffy playing what looked like a Gameboy. Ooo! "What game?"

Buffy smirked at him as she scanned his home. "Find the illegally planted listening devices."

"Haven't heard of that one. Is it any good?"

Buffy's smirk turned into a grin. "The best."

Dawn peeked over Buffy's shoulder. "Find any?"

"Well, there's one in the lamp over there, one on the doorframe to the deck, and one somewhere in the kitchen. And then there's you, of course." Buffy pointed out the location of each as she spoke, ending with her finger pointing at Dawn.

Jack's jaw dropped in surprise and somewhat delayed comprehension as Dawn restrained herself from flipping Buffy the bird. Riley covered a smile with his hand. "You're telling me that I've got three listening devices in my house?"

"Well, four, technically, if you count Dawn's implant."

Jack's head was spinning. "Implant?"

"Yes, sir, General O'Neill, sir."

Familiar with the hurricanes that were the Summers sisters, Riley was smiling outright at Dawn's response. They'd have to work on that whole proper form of military address thing if she decided to stick around.

Right now it looked like O'Neill was developing quite the headache. He was rubbing his temples in a way he usually did only when he was arguing with Daniel Jackson over something. "Carter!"

It was Buffy and Dawn's turn to be surprised as the tall gorgeous blonde who had to be Sam Carter walked into the room, holding two beers. Buffy bit her lower lip, unsure how she felt about Riley working with this much perfection on a daily basis. Not that she wanted to get back together with Riley or anything, but Sam Carter was pretty darn intimidating. Not only was she apparently brilliant, but she was beautiful too. She'd probably be nice and funny and make it completely impossible to hate her. Darn it. Carter handed one of the bottles to Jack. "You bellowed, sir?"

Dawn and Riley snorted. Buffy shot Dawn an inquiring look, receiving an almost imperceptible nod in response, giving temporary provisional approval of Riley's teammates. O'Neill was sputtering. "Carter! If I'm understanding these girls correctly..."

"Women, sir."

"Excuse me?"

"They're over eighteen, sir. They're women." Buffy and Dawn nodded solemnly in agreement. This was almost as much fun as tweaking Xander. Plus, they didn't have to do anything other than nod.

It was about this time that Daniel wandered into the hallway. Sam caught his eye and winked at him and turned back towards O'Neill. Daniel smiled, understanding her signal, and leaned back against the wall of the entryway, prepared to watch the latest episode of the 'Sam and Jack' show.

Buffy walked over and stood next to Daniel, leaning on the wall next to him and poked him in the side. Daniel looked down at her. What kind of person poked another person to get their attention? "Yes?"

She gestured with her head at Sam and Jack. "How long have they been a thing?"

"Oh, they're not dating."

"Seriously?" Sam Carter was now glaring at Jack O'Neill as he banged his head into the wall. "Looks like they're dating to me."

"Regulations." Daniel, never the best person to explain any military regulations, attempted to do exactly that. Dawn, from her spot next to the front door, must have asked Riley a similar question since he was emphatically shaking his head.

Finally, O'Neill threw up his hands and stalked away from the front door, slamming it closed as he went. "Okay, fine, Carter, whatever. Not nearly the point. What is the point is that these two..." O'Neill had apparently decided to give up on gender terminology altogether and was now pointing at both Buffy and Dawn. "...seem to think that there's listening devices planted in my house broadcasting everything that's said here, and since you're our resident science geek, I thought you'd be nice enough to tell them they're wrong."

Buffy interrupted. "Actually, General O'Neill, that's not quite true..."

He stared at her. "What's not quite true? Trust me, she's our resident science geek. You said there were four listening devices in my house, right?"

"Three, actually."

Jack pointed at Dawn again. "What about the one planted in your sister?"

Dawn spoke up, blushing. "It's technically more of a homing beacon than a listening device."

"Homing beacon?" Sam was definitely taking more of an active interest in the conversation now.

Dawn blushed harder. Her ears, cheeks and neck were now bright red. "Um, yeah. After the seventh kidnapping attempt, Buffy, Faith and Xander asked Will and Oz to come up with something that would make me easier to find."

Buffy grinned and poked her sister. "Hey, at least they didn't have to make it transdimensional until after the twelfth attempt."

It was Sam's turn to have her jaw drop. She thought she very professionally resisted the urge to give take Buffy down to the floor, rip the gadget out of her hands and run into O'Neill's garage for his toolbox while laughing maniacally, and mentally patted herself on the back. "Are you telling me that you have a homing device that works from a different dimension?"

Buffy responded, "Uh huh...", and shrugged her shoulders, clearly unclear on what all the fuss was about. "No big, really. A coupla microchips, one Gameboy with an extra mojoey location spell, and voila, instant Dawn findage."

Daniel looked a little confused about what his companion had said and looked at her for a translation. She shrugged again. "What?"

As Daniel sent a pleading look in Sam's direction, Riley wandered off to grab a beer and find Teal'c. He'd forgotten that chaos followed Buffy around and he was more than a little surprised to find that he'd missed it. Dawn walked over to lean against the wall with Buffy and Daniel, in case she was needed. Besides, they hadn't been formally introduced to Sam Carter yet.

Meanwhile, Sam had almost recovered from her surprise and was now staring at Dawn's shoulders, trying to see the implant through three layers of clothing and failing miserably.

O'Neill, on the other hand, was drafting a requisition form in his head. Hmmm...two for every member of an off-world team... "...four for Daniel...makes, let's see...carry the three..."

Realizing where Jack's brain had inevitably taken him, Daniel looked vaguely offended. "Four, Jack?"

Jack paused in his calculations, unrepentant. "In case one of them malfunctions, Danny. One in each shoulder, two in your butt."

Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose and folded his arms across his chest. "I don't get lost that often..."

Buffy grinned at the archeologist, delighted. Giles hardly ever pouted. "How often are we talking about here?" Daniel mumbled something incoherent. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I believe that DanielJackson stated that he becomes misplaced once or twice a month."

Buffy and Dawn turned to the huge man who was suddenly standing slightly behind Daniel Jackson. Buffy glanced around the entryway. She was surrounded and feeling slightly claustrophobic. "Okay, suddenly feeling kinda short."

"Shouldn't be anything out of the ordinary for you, Buff." Dawn smirked at her sister.

"Shut up." Buffy thought for a second, then whispered to Dawn. "Super tall strong guy's not completely human."

"Vamp?"

"Naah. Something else."

Dawn nodded. "Got it."

O'Neill smiled again, having missed the whispered conversation about Teal'c. These were definitely his kind of people. Save the world, make smart ass remarks, save the world, yadda yadda. There were still a few thousand unanswered questions, though. He looked to the Jaffa. "T, who's watching the grill?"

"RileyFinn."

"Okay." He decided to grab the flapping reins of the situation and take command. "Carter, if it's okay with you, can we get back to where there are listening devices planted in my freaking house?"

Carter looked abashed. "Certainly, sir. Uh, and maybe we should introduce ourselves and adjourn into the living room?"

Oops. So much for military discipline. He gave a little wave. "Hiya. Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter, Teal'c. You already met Daniel, and I guess you know Finn from wayback. So, which one's geekgirl and which one's the savior of the universe?"

"GEEKGIRL?" Dawn was more than a little annoyed at O'Neill's classification. She kicked supernatural ass, thank you very much. She gave a little 'hmph' and folded her arms in front of her, unconsciously imitating Daniel Jackson's position from earlier.

"Guess that answers that question..." Daniel spoke to Teal'c under his breath.

He nodded. "Indeed."

"It's a term of endearment." Carter rolled her eyes behind Jack's back.

Buffy was grinning at her sister. Wait until she told the gang about Dawn's new nickname. She nodded at Sam and Teal'c. "I'm Buffy Summers. Dawn's the one whose head just exploded." Dawn shot a dirty look at Buffy and stalked into the living room.

Jack would worry about smoothing things over with Dawn later, after she decided to work with them. He shook Buffy's hand again. God, she was young. "Meetcha. Now, about those bugs..."

Buffy looked disgustingly proud about something. She gestured around the room. "No sweat, problem's totally fixed."

"They're gone?" He hoped that wasn't the case. He wanted to give Carter the chance to trace the technology and signals to find out who was bugging his friggin' house.

Buffy shook her head. "Nope. Just some kind of dampening spell Will cooked up. Comes free with the service. They won't pick anything up until Dawn and I leave. That way, your big bad won't know you're onto them. Cool, huh?"

He grinned. "Very. Would you do me a favor, though?"

Buffy looked at him cautiously and stuck her left hand in her pocket, bracing her right hand and the device on her hip. "Depends on what it is."

He smirked at his 2IC. "Hand Carter that doohickey in your hands so she can look it over. I promise not to let her take it apart. But she'll explode if she doesn't get to examine it soon and I just had the carpets cleaned."

"Sir!" Carter looked vaguely offended until Buffy handed her the hand device, at which point her facial expression became avaricious.

"It's only a prototype, Colonel Carter." Sam immediately held the thing like it was made of crystal and worth as much as the 'gate and vowed not to hand it to Jack, who would start playing with it, actual Gameboy or not. She was still upset that she couldn't take it apart, though. "If you want one, though, I'm sure Will or Oz would send you the specs. Or, y'know, most of them, since they don't have a patent yet."

Sam looked up from her examination of the object. "Call me Sam, Buffy. Um...is tomorrow too early to get them here?"

Jack grabbed Sam's elbow and pulled her into his living room, where he gently pushed her down onto the leather sofa. "Easy there, Carter. Higher priority stuff tonight, remember?"

"Yes, sir. It's just that..."

"Aah!" He stuck his hand in her face. "Phhsht. Not another word, Carter."

"Yessir." She immediately flipped the device over and started trying to figure out how to take it apart. Then she flipped it back over and started punching buttons.

"Er, I don't think you should poke it like that, Carter."

"Why not, sir?" After all, poking at previously unknown technology was one of her best things. She was usually allowed to poke with impunity.

Buffy spoke up from her perch on the arm of the sofa before O'Neill could, knowing that Dawn wouldn't really want to contradict someone she might have to be friendly with for years while she was working on her translation project, seeing as how Sam was a friend of Daniel Jackson's. "It's keeping the dampening spell stable, Sam. I don't know how to fix it if it goes all wonky."

Jack smirked at Daniel, for some strange reason. "Wonky, huh? Is that a technical term?"

Buffy was never one to give up a good verbal sparring session. "Yes. And I'd be careful using it if I were you, General. If you're untrained and unlicensed, it could blow up in your face. Nothing worse that spellular fallout."

Dawn grinned at her sister. "Yeah. For instance, you could be standing on the street, staring at bridal gowns because you've been bespelled to marry a snarky British vampire with a bad dye job when the guy you've got a mad crush on walks by and you tell him everything..."

Riley poked his head in from the back patio, grinning. "Is that how that happened?"

Dawn cracked up. "I totally forgot you were there, Ri. Yup, that's what really happened."

He walked into the room brandishing the barbeque tongs and looked pointedly down at Buffy, who was pointedly ignoring the curious looks she was getting from everyone in the room. "It's official. You, Buffy Anne Summers, are officially the worst liar I've ever met. 'I saw that fear in your eyes when you caught me looking at wedding dresses, and I had to give you a hard time...you were looking at me like I was a cartoon ball and chain...'."

Buffy made a face at him, then shot a dirty look at Dawn, who was still giggling from her spot on the floor as she whispered the entire story to Daniel and Teal'c. Teal'c's eyebrow almost hit the seal on his forehead and Daniel kept glancing at Riley and grinning. "Oh, yeah, because 'Sorry about the misunderstanding, Riley, but my best friend Willow, y'know, the witch, was angsting over her breakup with her boyfriend the werewolf and did a spell that her will be done and the spell took everything she said very literally' would have sounded so much more plausible."

"She does have a point, Finn." Over the years in SpecOps and then with the SGC, Jack had become the master of the lame-ass cover story to explain the unexplainable. After all, it's not like it was any kind of rational to have an archeologist working as a civilian consultant in deep space radar telemetry for a government project located miles under the ground in the middle of Colorado.

Riley nodded once at his CO. He very obviously had more to say to Buffy on the subject, but turned on his heel and returned to the back patio until they could speak more privately.

Daniel looked at Buffy and decided to dive in. "Your best friend's a witch?"

"Yup."

"And she dated a werewolf?"

Buffy was twirling a piece of hair. Daniel swallowed, finding it a little distracting. Buffy shared an entire non-verbal conversation with Dawn with eye movements and hand gestures, ultimately deciding that as long as they didn't use full names, they should be okay. "Yeah, but he was only wolfy three days out of the month, so it wasn't a big deal. We locked him in a cage of the library and kept him guarded so he didn't hurt anybody."

"Well, naturally."

Buffy grinned at Daniel, who'd spoken. "If it helps, my other best friend dated an ex-vengeance demon for four years, off and on."

Daniel took his glasses off and placed them on the coffee table. "How, exactly, would that help?"

Buffy pondered for a second. "Huh. I guess it wouldn't help you, if you're all determined to be weirded out by this kind of thing. But aren't you the guy who said the Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens? I'd think your brain would be much more elastic."

Daniel was unable to respond, struck dumb by the visual of someone playing with his brains as if they were Silly Putty.

As usual, Jack was unafraid to step into the breach. "Huh. Yeah. About that. Funny story..."

Riley's timing was dead on. He called them all to dinner before Jack fully opened that particular can of worms. According to the rules of etiquette as drafted by SG-9, parasitic aliens out to destroy Earth were much more of an after dinner topic.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

Will the real Riley Finn please stand up?

Daniel took Dawn's arm as they headed out of the hallway. She tensed instinctively and Daniel quickly removed his hand and wrote a mental post-it that she wasn't comfortable with casual touching.

"Dawn, you can relax. No matter what else may happen tonight, I'll be your advisor. It's a really interesting project and I think our personalities will mesh well. Okay?"

Dawn's instant smile lit up her face and, possibly, the entire state of Colorado. He blinked. Wow. Wattage like that could power the 'gate. The heck with ZPMs. "Really?"

"Of course."

The next thing Daniel knew, he had his arms full of nubile young woman as she hugged him tightly–extremely tightly–and he mentally removed the post-it from earlier, crumpled it, and threw it in the trash. Enjoying the simple human contact, he returned her hug for a few minutes and ignored the inquiring glance Buffy threw his way. He sighed as Dawn released him, thanked him profusely and went to tell her sister the good news.

Buffy's initial smile was almost as bright as Dawn's, and as he watched, Dawn began bouncing on her toes as she spoke excitedly to her sister, whose eyes appeared to have quickly glazed over a la Jack O'Neill in an archeological briefing. Her smile and apparent happiness for her sister never dimmed. He sighed again. Sometimes he really missed having family who would be happy for him and proud of him even if they really didn't understand what he was talking about.

"Where're we eating? Choices are the back deck or the kitchen." Jack questioned the assembled group, missing the entire Dawn/Daniel discussion and byplay but enjoying the immediately more relaxed atmosphere. Riley was holding two platters piled high with delicious-smelling food, but, remembering his audience, was holding them above Buffy's head so she wouldn't start snitching food before they sat down somewhere.

Buffy piped up. "I vote kitchen. Getting a little frigid out there."

Riley smiled at Dawn, who was still glowing. "You can take the girl out of California..."

"Shut up, Riley. Just because you're Nanook of the North..."

"Nanook of the where?" Sam smirked at Daniel. He grinned in return.

"He's from Iowa."

"I think I already knew that." Sam walked over to Jack's refrigerator and opened it, shaking things and examining the contents with a wary eye as Riley put the platters of food on the table and Teal'c moved to the cupboard to get plates and glasses and began setting the table. Buffy immediately grabbed a piece of grilled asparagus and began munching.

Sam's rummaging continued. "Anyone want something to drink? We've got beer, water, um...something that looks like it might once have been orange juice but now looks like it can be used to spackle the bathroom...some lumpy milk...flat cola..."

Once upon a time, Janet Fraiser had believed that the contents of Jack O'Neill's refrigerator could be used most effectively as a biological weapon against the Goa'uld. Testing was still in the preliminary stages.

O'Neill walked up behind Sam and closed the fridge door firmly, blocking her from the rest of the room with his body and caging her between his arms. Buffy, Dawn, Riley, and Daniel became inordinately interested in his kitchen lighting and were studying it closely. Jack decided to ignore them and stared down at his 2IC. "That's enough of that, Carter. There's water and beer. End of story."

Sam swallowed, her mouth surprisingly dry. Must have been all the discussion of beverages making her thirsty. Yeah, right. She cleared her throat. O'Neill took a step back, looked around, and rolled his eyes as he saw the younger contingent of the kitchen, who had apparently moved on to an enthusiastic discussion of his kitchen molding, determinedly keeping their backs to he and Sam. Dawn was even gesturing. Subtle they weren't.

"So, drinks?"

"Water for me, thanks, General O'Neill. Beer and Buffy are totally non-mixy things."

Dawn gave Buffy an evil grin as Daniel shook his head again at her sister's extremely creative use of English. Buffy caught the head shake and wondered what it would take to get Daniel to clean his glasses.

"Sure, you go all 'Clan of the Cave Buffy' one time in college, and suddenly you're a teetotaler."

"Clan of the Cave Buffy?" Daniel was happy that Riley had asked Dawn for an explanation before he had the chance to do so. Something told him that he'd get more information out of Buffy if he let her sister and Riley do the questioning.

Dawn stared at Buffy, then Riley, completely incredulous. "Geez, Riley, didn't the two of you ever talk to each other? Freshman year, evil demon beer, prehistoric Buffy? Any of this ringing a bell?"

As curious as he was to hear all the details of the story, O'Neill could tell that particular line of conversation wasn't going to end well for anybody. Making an executive decision, he clunked a large pitcher of ice water on the table, along with a number of bottles of beer. "Sit down, guys, or it's gonna get cold." O'Neill looked at the table. It was pretty naked. "Right, we need buns, condiments, chips and chairs." No one moved. He tapped the naked shoulder of his black t-shirt. "Ahem...General speaking..."

Daniel looked around the room, then at Jack. "Um, Jack...Sam, four civilians and an army guy."

"Right then. Carter, Finn, crack to it."

"Yes, sir. Because I wouldn't want you to strain your back carrying the rolls...Would you like your cane, sir? Maybe a nice big bowl of prunes?"

He glared at Sam. "Ixnay on the old jokes, Carter." She gave him what was probably the world's most sarcastic salute in return and sat down at the table, crossing her arms over her chest. After eight years, he should know better than to try and give her orders during her downtime.

Meanwhile, Daniel decided that he wanted to eat dinner while he still had teeth to chew it with and began searching Jack's cupboards, eventually emerging victoriously in possession of a bag of rolls and a bag of potato chips. Buffy carried a chair in from the living room while Teal'c liberated one from the deck. Dawn took the rolls and chips from Daniel and put them on the table while he said a quick prayer to the refrigerator gods and got the mustard, ketchup, mayo and pickles out of Jack's fridge. He opened the mayonnaise jar, took a sniff and put it back silently.

Buffy studied the gold symbol on Teal'c's forehead as she placed her chair under the table and sat down to Sam's right, trying unsuccessfully to match it to anything she remembered from Giles's books. Riley had said that Teal'c wasn't a demon, but it never hurt to double check these things. Especially since he was still giving off a distinctly not completely human vibe. "So, Teal'c, huh? Unusual name."

He sent her a measured look in return as he, and everyone else, sat, with Riley and Dawn sniggering at the irony that was Buffy's last remark. "It is traditional among my people."

"And who exactly are your people? Riley said you weren't from around here."

O'Neill choked on a pickle. Riley Finn was apparently an unacknowledged master of the understatement. "Why don't we save that until after dinner, okay?" Jack handed the platters around, having taken a burger and some grilled onions for himself.

Buffy accepted the platters, removed a chicken breast, a hamburger, some peppers, a couple slices of eggplant, some asparagus and a portobello mushroom, and passed the platters to Teal'c. He promptly took six hamburgers, two chicken breasts and a couple of produce aisle's worth of vegetables. Daniel was surprised by the sheer amount of food on Buffy's plate but decided not to say anything since no one else seemed to find anything out of the ordinary.

Dawn noticed his expression, leaned over towards him and whispered, "Slayer metabolism. If she doesn't eat enough, she drops weight really quickly and just ends up looking sick. We mere mortals find it pretty annoying."

"Ah." He watched his potential assistant carefully as he chose his food and placed a platter back on the table. Dawn was building what looked like the most fascinating sandwich he'd ever seen. If he had the order correct, she'd smeared a layer of ketchup and mustard on the bottom bun, then carefully placed a couple of pickles in some kind of geometric configuration (he thought it was a rhombus, but would ask Sam later), then a hamburger, some onions, and a portobello mushroom. She hadn't replaced the top to her bun and seemed to be looking for something. Sam and Jack were also watching the process avidly.

"Is there any steak sauce?" Dawn asked Jack, since it was his house and he looked like a steak kind of guy.

Jack appeared to be mesmerized by her hamburger. He couldn't stop staring at it. He gestured absently towards the stove. "Er...yeah. In the cupboard to the right of the stove."

Dawn rose quickly and walked to the cupboard. The steak sauce was in front, right where O'Neill said it was. She returned to her seat, slathered the top of the bun with steak sauce and placed the bun on top of the mushroom. Then she took a bite, chewing happily. Then she realized that Sam, Jack, and Daniel were all staring at her. Buffy gave a little groan and Riley was shaking his head. "What?"

Sam looked at the sandwich, then at Dawn, trying to figure out the physics involved. "How did you manage to take a bite of that?"

"She's got a big mouth." Dawn glared at her sister.

Jack gave a theatrical shudder. At least she wouldn't have a problem eating MREs or off-world cuisine. "More importantly, why did you take a bite of that? It looks...repulsive."

"You want repulsive, you should have been there for the peanut butter and banana quesadilla. Or the anchovies and pineapple pizza."

"You put anchovies on pizza? Excellent!" Carter was delighted. If Dawn joined the SGC, they'd finally have a majority on their weekly pizza order. Teal'c nodded in approval.

Riley stared at Buffy's sandwich and grimaced. "Yeah, because chicken and eggplant is so normal..."

"Thank you, Riley!" Dawn grinned triumphantly at her sister. Nothing like having a stalwart defender around.

Daniel, however, was still staring at Dawn's sandwich. It looked...so original. "Er, Dawn? Would you mind if I tried a bite?"

O'Neill looked at Daniel in horror while Teal'c raised an eyebrow at him, considering. "Daniel, please think about this..." He knew that Daniel's taste in food leaned towards the exotic, but this was just...yuck. It looked like an express trip to the infirmary on a bun.

Dawn pushed her plate towards Daniel. He lifted Dawn's creation to his mouth and took a bite, chewing slowly.

"Well? Do I need to get the ipecac?"

Daniel shook his head at Jack and swallowed. "It's pretty good, actually. A little salty, a little sweet...lots of interesting textures." Then he glanced at Dawn, pondering. "Needs something for crunch, though. Lettuce. Maybe some sliced water chestnuts..."

"Ooh, chips!" She promptly grabbed a handful of salt and vinegar chips, lifted the top bun and mushroom, placed five chips with almost military precision on top of the burger, then replaced the top half and smushed it down. She took a bite, nodded approvingly, and handed it to Daniel, who also took a bite and nodded.

She grinned at Daniel, pleased that someone else understood. "I think it needs sweet pickles, instead of dill."

He brushed a stray potato chip crumb off his shirt. "Oh, yeah, I could see how that would make a difference..."

Spec-friggin'-tacular. Teal'c was now grinning at Dawn and Daniel, and that was creepy, no matter the circumstances. Jack pointed at the linguists, ignoring Sam's and Buffy's giggles. "Awright, just stop! No more. Summers, you sit there and eat frankenburger. Daniel, don't help. Carter, no giggling. Other Summers, you've gotta have a good Riley story to share with the class. He mentioned something about Dracula, I think? And a butt monkey?"

Buffy cracked up at the remembrance of Xander's impassioned 'no more butt monkey' speech. Dawn seized the opportunity to get back at her sister for the earlier crack about her big mouth.

"Did Riley tell you about the house that made he and Buffy have sex, like, nonstop, for hours?"

Teal'c's eyebrow rose as he glanced at Riley. "No, he did not." Sam's hamburger had stopped involuntarily at Dawn's question. O'Neill was grinning so hard it looked like his face was going to split in half and Daniel's ears were bright red. As for Riley and Buffy, well, if looks could kill, Dawn would have been beyond even Willow's abilities.

Riley cleared his throat and attempted to ignore his embarrassment as he looked at his teammates and superior officer. "Um...yeah...er...y'see, it's like this..."

Dawn grinned at Riley. Nothing like an annoying younger sister digging up your past to help bring you back to the land of the living. "He didn't tell you? I can't believe it never just came up in conversation..."

Riley shot her the look of death again. Teal'c raised an eyebrow at him.

O'Neill was still grinning and had leaned back in his chair, anticipating the story. "No, as a matter of fact, it must have slipped his mind. Please, continue."

"Dawn, you say word one and I'll rip your tongue out and beat you to death with it." Buffy's glare hadn't diminished.

O'Neill directed his shit-eating grin at Buffy. Teal'c looked impressed by the creativity and originality of her threat. "You gotta give us something, Summers. We didn't even know you existed until last week. From where I'm sitting, it looks like the only things your Riley Finn and ours share are his name and his military service. If you don't tell us about him, we'll start thinking he's a clone or something, and we'll put him in jail, and we'll lose a damn good operative–and that would be bad for national security. So, spill."

Dawn exhaled a loud sigh of relief when Buffy's glare switched from her to General O'Neill.

"What do they know?" Buffy threw this rather belligerent question to Riley.

"They know about the Initiative and everything that went on there. Demons and vampires are real, slayers exist, you met Dracula...Daniel knows about almost everything that led up to me leaving the year after that."

She huffed. Great. She couldn't imagine what Daniel Jackson thought of her after hearing what was Riley's undoubtedly biased account of their relationship. Not that she was trying to impress him or anything, but she hated when people thought badly of her. "Fine. But I'm only telling you stuff about Riley until you tell us what's really going on."

Jack and Sam exchanged a look. Maybe the blonde wasn't as dumb as she looked. "That's fair."

"What do you want to know?"

Sam decided that they'd made Buffy suspicious enough and started with an easy question. "How'd you and Riley meet?"

Buffy smiled as Riley unconsciously rubbed the back of his head. "I dropped a couple of psychology textbooks on his head. Totally made him forget his manners."

"I thought there was a possibility you were trying to kill me."

Buffy rolled her eyes at Riley. "Right. Because that happened so often?"

Riley decided that it was better not to mention how many creatures tried to kill him while he worked for the Initiative. "Okay, so it was a small possibility..."

"Then you thought you had a concussion. Which you so didn't."

Riley shrugged, ignoring the look of unholy glee from O'Neill as he watched their discussion. If Jack had known that Buffy's presence would have this kind of an effect on Finn, he would have brought her in months ago, slayer or not. This was the man the Joint Chiefs had been talking about when they'd described Riley Finn's accomplishments; not the automaton he'd been since his wife had died. These girls were good for him–and if they made Riley more effective at his job, he'd count that as a bonus.

Sam hid a smirk behind her hand at the byplay between Buffy and Riley. So much for easy questions. Riley was now gesturing at Buffy. "Hey, those books were heavy. There was definite concussion potential. Anyway, you're the one who was too stubborn to ask for help."

Buffy took a very determined bite of chicken and straightened up, immediately prim, proper and righteous. "The bookstore discriminated against short people. I was taking a stand for my beliefs."

"The belief that you didn't need to use a ladder to reach the top of things?"

"Yes. All shelves should be reachable, by me, at all times." Teal'c raised an eyebrow. Buffy Summers might be a warrior, but she was definitely small in stature. At 6'3", he didn't think that her belief was a good one.

Dawn rolled her eyes at Sam and Daniel. "Don't mind her. She's got delusions of tallness."

"Hey!"

Jack grinned. "Well said."

"How did you become involved with the Initiative? RileyFinn mentioned only that you came to his organization's attention, not how you did so."

"I guess it all started with them chipping Spike." Dawn glared at Buffy and kicked her from under the table. Right. She wasn't supposed to be talking about anything but Riley. "But we should probably fast forward a bit...and I'll tell you about the Gentlemen. Otherwise known as the day Riley Finn blew his cover."

"Yours wasn't exactly rock solid by the time we were finished, either, Buffy." Dawn snorted, having heard the story numerous times, since it also included the story of how Willow and Tara met.

"The who?" So far, Jack wasn't impressed. It sounded like they'd been ambushed by a bunch of waiters.

"Gentlemen. From an old fairy tale."

"A fairy tale?" Daniel, Sam, and Teal'c looked intrigued and Jack hadn't started twiddling, so that had to count for something.

"Yeah, you'd be surprised how often they're based in reality. Remind me to tell you about Santa Claus sometime."

"Buffy...off topic." Dawn didn't like discussing Santa Claus–it brought back too many painful memories of their last Christmas as a family, back when Joyce, Tara and Anya were still alive. They hadn't really done a big family holiday since. Maybe it was time they did.

Buffy took a bite of mushroom. "Right. Sorry. So, anyway, there's these totally creepy guys, and they hit Sunnydale late at night and decide to stick around, since the Hellmouth is like a demon HoJo's–open all night and there's always a vacancy. The next morning, everyone's voices are gone. Completely, not just laryngitis, even though the news said that was why the entire town of Sunnydale was under quarantine. Stupid reporters. Mass chaos everywhere." She skipped over the prophetic dream part–if they didn't know, she wasn't going to give them extra information.

Riley decided to add his own two cents, knowing how quickly Buffy's train of thought derailed. "My unit and I were dispatched to help keep the peace, since people were starting to riot."

"...and you wouldn't believe the dry erase board and marker market. Price gouging bastards. Seriously. Ten dollars?"

"Supply and demand, Buffy." Riley couldn't help poking Dawn in the side. It would be bad if Buffy got distracted–O'Neill was literally on the edge of his seat, definitely a rare occurrence.

Buffy shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Then we find out that these...whatever they are...have been killing people–stealing their hearts, actually."

"That's...disturbing." Daniel had no problem examining corpses that had been dead for thousands of years, but the visual that came with Buffy's story was much...gooeyer. He pushed his plate away, noticing that Sam did the same. Teal'c and Dawn appeared unaffected.

"No kidding. Turns out that the reason that everyone was silent was so that no one could hear the screams as they ripped the hearts out. They got everywhere by floating six inches above the ground. No idea how that works. Plus, they had these ubercreepy minions–low intelligence, bandaged heads, flapping straitjackets..."

"Holy Hannah." Although she was definitely disconcerted by the tale itself, Sam was most startled by Buffy's matter-of-fact recitation. The girl obviously found nothing unusual in what she was telling them–as if this kind of thing happened every week. Then Sam remembered what Jack had told her about the Initiative. Maybe it did.

Buffy still appeared unbothered. She continued, as if Sam hadn't spoken. "You bet. So, Giles found an old fairy tale or nursery rhyme about the Gentlemen. After some really bad–and completely unflattering!–drawings and embarrassing efforts at pantomime, it turned out that they needed to collect seven hearts."

"For what?"

"Giles wasn't really clear on anything but the bloody and goriness that is extracting a human heart from a living body. Anyway, only a human voice could stop them."

Daniel and Sam had their heads together, already working on the problem. "What about a recording of some kind?"

Buffy shook her head, but made a mental note to introduce the two of them to Giles and Willow. Geeks of a feather and all that. "Had to be a live human voice."

Riley decided it was time to return to the narrative. "So, I head towards the clock tower, since that seems to be the center of the mess."

"What he's not telling you is that he was in complete military garb and fully armed at the time..." O'Neill gave a quiet groan, already beginning to see where this was going.

Riley blushed and fidgeted in his chair. "Moving right along..."

"I'm chasing some of these minion-y guys, and I end up in the clock tower. I see this army guy who looks exactly like my boyfriend getting his ass kicked all over the place..."

"Hey!"

Buffy smiled at Teal'c, who was frowning as he considered what he would have done in a similar situation, and resolved to be as honest as she could be. "Okay, so he's fighting off a whole flock of minions. He's still losing. I fight some bad guys, he fights some bad guys...it's completely apparent that we've been keeping some ginormous secrets from each other, since he's dressed like G.I. Joe..."

Riley was trying desperately to keep his teammates' respect, knowing that it was probably a hopeless task by this point. "And...and she's beating up all these guys like they're nothing..."

Buffy shrugged again. "There's a lot more fighting...fighting, fighting, fighting...some stairs...then we get to the room the baddies have been using as their headquarters. After a really bad round of charades, Riley finally opened the box with everyone's voices in it, I screamed like I was in a bad horror movie, their heads exploded. Poof! No more Gentlemen."

Riley looked at Buffy, appreciating that she hadn't told them about the awkwardness afterward, of the two of them in her dorm room staring at one another from opposite beds, trying to figure out how to begin to unwind the lies and half-truths they'd told each other.

"Well." For once, Jack O'Neill had nothing sarcastic to say. Sam pulled a palm pilot out of the pocket of her jeans and made a notation. O'Neill pretended to ignore her. Smart ass.

Daniel looked like he was bursting with questions. He was ready to start asking them until Buffy abruptly realized that she and Riley had been the only ones spilling their guts and Teal'c hadn't gotten any more human while they were talking. She put a hand up to quiet Daniel and looked directly at Teal'c. "Okay. Enough. Riley says you're not a demon. I can tell you're not completely human. What are you?"

Jack sighed and glanced around the table. Everyone appeared to be finished eating. "I guess it is about that time, isn't it?" He stood and walked into his living room. Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c followed him without a word.

Teal'c took up his customary position in the chair closest to the hallway, with his back to the wall and facing the rest of the room. Anyone coming in through the living room window or the front door would have to go through him before they made contact with anyone else. He noticed with interest that Buffy took a similar position on the other side of the room and appeared to be protecting Dawn from an attack not only from outside, but from the rest of the occupants of the room, sitting very obviously between them.

Riley, aware of both the reason for this discussion and the probable reaction, had chosen to sit as far from both Summers women as was humanly possible. He was standing by the window, looking out at O'Neill's peaceful neighborhood. Sam and Daniel were seated on opposite ends of the leather sofa. Jack was pacing like a caged wolf.

Finally, he stopped directly in front of Dawn and Buffy, planting his feet and running his hand through his hair, leaving little silver spikes in its wake. "He's a Jaffa."

Dawn looked confused. "...and that means what, exactly?"

"He's an alien."

"Oh." The confusion was gone, replaced by an expression Daniel couldn't identify.

Daniel was shocked. This was definitely not the reaction he'd been expecting. Buffy appeared to be checking her manicure. "That's it?"

Buffy looked up from her hands directly into Daniel's eyes. Pretty blue eyes. Bad Buffy. Now was definitely not the time for her hormones to return from vacation. "Figured it was something like that after Riley said he wasn't a vampire and wasn't a demon. There's only so many non-human choices, y'know."

Jack was completely gobsmacked and promptly forgot his prepared speech. He unconsciously perched on the sofa arm next to Carter for support. "Right. Okay. Um. So, here's the thing. Aliens exist."

Buffy smiled at Teal'c. "I think we're clear on that, General O'Neill."

O'Neill ran another hand through his hair. "Hokay. So, um...I guess the next thing is how he got here."

Dawn nodded. It was much easier to accept that aliens existed and that some of them had made it to Earth than it was for people to accept her real origins. Not that they'd taken out an ad in the newspaper or anything, but the Key thing had totally wigged Wes, Faith and Fred, even years after the fact. "Sounds like a good question. How did you get here?"

"Through a device called a Chappa'ai."

The foreign word was unfamiliar to Dawn. "A what?"

"We call them Stargates."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

Dawn was the one who broke the silence. "So, what's a Stargate?"

Jack and Daniel stared pointedly at Sam. Explaining the Stargate was definitely her province. "It's a device that is capable of generating a stable wormhole. These wormholes are able to connect Earth's 'gate to any other planet that has one, as long as we have the proper set of coordinates, called an address."

"How do you get these coordinates?"

"Most of them came off a cartouche wall on a planet called Abydos. We've found some more along the way."

Buffy and Dawn looked mildly interested, but not overly impressed with what they were hearing. "So you just keep going through this Stargate and discovering new planets? Sounds interesting, but not particularly earth-shattering."

"Er, yeah, about that..."

Buffy sighed at Daniel's hedging statement. Of course it wasn't that simple. For one thing, this was her life and she should really know better. For another, this was the U.S. government they were dealing with–proud sponsors of the Initiative. "After you went through this 'gate thing, you found out you'd opened Pandora's Box, right? Started messing around with things you didn't understand and weren't ready for and now the entire planet's in danger? A lot."

Riley cleared his throat and took a careful step backwards from Buffy.

Dawn seamlessly picked up her sister's thread. "And you don't have nearly the personpower or weapons you need to fight them off successfully, so you decided that you would ask a slayer to risk her life to clean up your mess. Again."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. Jack and Sam exchanged a look. These women sounded remarkably blasé about what was usually a pretty earth-shattering revelation. Knowing better, Riley took another few steps back from Buffy and Dawn and cast a longing glance at the front door, wondering if he'd be able to make it outside and down the block before Buffy or Teal'c caught him.

Jack took over the explanation, trying to ignore the fact that the Summers sisters seemed to agree with the Asgard and the Nox about the Tau'ri's proper place in relation to the rest of the universe. They'd probably tell him he was young, too–which made no sense whatsoever, since he was probably at least twice Buffy's age. He tried not to sound defensive. "Okay, so, yeah. Maybe we did screw up. Point is, we're out there now and they know about us and we have to deal with the situation, since the dumb snakes refuse to leave Earth alone no matter how many times we kicked their asses. Assi? Anyway...They're Goa'uld."

Buffy gave Jack a look that clearly said she didn't believe him and flipped her hair. "The U.S. government wants to send a slayer to other planets to help fight an apocalyptic battle against jewelry?"

Dawn, knowing Buffy, snorted at her sister's deliberate misunderstanding. Never let it be said she didn't still get mileage out of the dumb blonde routine. Dawn was well aware that Buffy was paying close attention to what was being said, but that didn't mean that she wasn't above yanking a few chains at the same time. She winked at Buffy. "We could always volunteer Cordelia. She's not a slayer, but she's good with accessories."

Daniel caught the wink. While he appreciated the value of anyone who could find a new way to harass Jack and would definitely make a note for future O'Neill-baiting opportunities, he decided to impart some background information before Jack's head exploded. "That's Goa'uld, not gold, Buffy. They're parasites, and they've been using human beings as slaves as far back as anyone is able to tell. They set themselves up as deities–usually Egyptian, but sometimes Celtic, Hindi, Greek, Roman."

Dawn rubbed her temples. "Why do the humans put up with it? I mean, I could move to Miami and tell people I'm a goddess and that they should worship me and be my slaves, but no one would because they'd be too busy laughing and carting me off to the psychiatric ward so I could be fitted with a nice coat with extra buckles."

Daniel began to pace, now in lecture mode. "Most of the humans were taken off-world millennia ago. Among other things, the Goa'uld steal advanced technologies and adapt them for their own purposes. They use them in front of these more primitive cultures and the humans think they're using magic. They're worshipped accordingly."

"You're the military. How come you haven't just found where they live and blown them up with a big honkin' ray gun or extra-bomby space bomb or something?"

Sam groaned. Great. O'Neill had just stopped asking for big honking ray guns. Now there would be requests for extra-bomby space bombs.

Despite the seriousness of the topic, Jack smiled. It was nice to know that he and Buffy thought along similar lines. There was also the undeniable skill at being a smart ass that she'd displayed just a few minutes ago–he wouldn't assign her with the diplomats on SG-9, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about her not being able to hold her own against the Marines on SG-3.

"The Goa'uld gestate inside the Jaffa, who are dependent upon them for their survival. While it is young, a Goa'uld provides its host Jaffa with immunity to foreign or alien diseases. Without a primta, a Jaffa is extremely vulnerable."

Buffy looked pointedly at Teal'c. "And these Jaffa guys? They're tough? I mean, I can see that you look like you're really tough, but sometimes looks can be deceiving. Or maybe you're the only tough guy out of everybody."

"The Jaffa are highly trained warriors. We are formidable." Teal'c looked especially smug.

Jack gave Teal'c the once-over, trying to figure out what was going on in the Jaffa's head. He'd been displaying a great deal of emotion that night, unusual for he of the amazing raised eyebrow. "T, here, used to be the First Prime of Apophis. He was responsible for training and commanding his entire army."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Cool. How do you feel about girls?"

"I find most girls very agreeable. In my experience I have found Tau'ri females to be just as obliging as Jaffa females."

Jack snorted. Talk about being damned with faint praise. Buffy rolled her eyes at her first experience with Jaffa humor. "Not for dating, Teal'c. For training and fighting. See, we're always looking for new people to be Watchers, since there's this huge shortage..."

For a moment, Teal'c looked quite intrigued by the possibility of training warriors again. O'Neill couldn't believe that they'd messed up the recruitment speech so badly that Buffy was offering Teal'c a job with her organization. "No."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. Sam and Daniel were snickering.

"Y'know, Daniel, we could really use all your language skills, too. Lots of old journals, spellbooks, and prophecies in big, dusty stinky books and scrolls just waiting to be translated. Dawn, Wes, Giles, and...oh god, Andrew...when the hell did that happen?...are all we've really got in that department. The pay's not great and the job security sucks..."

Now Daniel was starting to look interested, damn it. Jack couldn't take it anymore. He went non-verbal. "Phhst!"

As if that wasn't enough, it sounded like Finn was laughing his ass off in the hallway.

Buffy smiled innocently at O'Neill, thrilled that he was so much easier to annoy than Giles. She mentally rubbed her hands together, anticipating a day when he met Xander and Willow for the first time. Oooh, not to mention Spike and Faith. Big bad Air Force General would crawl back to Colorado sobbing, thanking his lucky stars that all he had to deal with were parasitic aliens.

"Actually, Buffy, we'd like to offer you a job."

"A real job? Like with health benefits and a 401k plan?" Now that she was spoiled by getting a regular paycheck, Buffy was all about getting benefits.

"Yes."

"Depends. What do you want me to do?" To work on another top secret government project, they'd better be some damn good benefits. Like a Porsche.

"We'd like you to join an off-world team and do some exploring. Hopefully lots of Goa'uld butt-kicking. That kind of thing."

Buffy blushed, which Jack wouldn't have expected, and picked at the sleeve of her sweater. "I wouldn't have to be in charge, would I? I've got issues with authority."

Dawn snorted. Ladies and gentlemen, her sister. Queen of the understatement. Coronation pictures available on the Scooby website. "Yeah, both her own and other people's." Buffy stuck her tongue out at Dawn, making Daniel wish for the second time that evening that he'd had a sibling growing up.

Jack smiled. "Sounds familiar." Daniel wasn't big on authority either.

Deciding that the time for Summers explosions had passed, Riley returned to the living room and sat on the love seat, stretching out and crossing his ankles in front of him. Remembering how Buffy had been while she was testing her limits with Maggie Walsh, he linked his hands behind his head and waited for the show to start.

Dawn blinked back unexpected tears as the conversation between Jack and her sister continued and she rose silently, unable to listen anymore. It just figured–Buffy was the one with the job offer. She was just the tagalong. Again. And now, on top of everything, she felt guilty because they'd just found out that the world was in danger, again, and she was mired deep in petty sibling rivalry. "Excuse me. I need to get some fresh air." And give herself a mental kick in the ass.

Buffy stood up to follow her sister, but a head shake from Dawn stopped her. She frowned and sat back in her chair, arms crossed under her breasts. "Okay, so I'll just stay here and get the deets...and you go...enjoy your air."

"What was that all about?" Daniel watched Dawn's progress to the deck, saw her slide the door open, walk through, close it, and eventually lean forward against the deck railing, studying the stars. Once upon a time, he'd spent a lot of nights doing the same thing. He just hoped it wasn't for the same reasons.

Buffy sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I don't know. She'll tell me when she's ready. Finding out that everything we've done and everyone we've sacrificed could be completely destroyed because the government's stupid...it's a lot. She's never had her world implode like this before. Me? I'm getting used to it."

"You don't seem that bothered by it." Sam was almost accusing.

Buffy began to twist her hair behind her head in what was obviously a nervous gesture. "It's a thing with us–my friends and I, I mean. Apocalypses, demons, prophecies, vampire boyfriends turning evil..." Riley tensed. Buffy didn't notice, busy piercing Jack and Sam with her gaze, hoping they'd get it. "...we've seen it all. We fight because there's no one else who can do the job we do."

She took a deep breath as the reality of their new situation began to hit her. "Whatever the bad thing is, it's coming, and it's going to hurt someone we love. Probably even kill them. So we make bad jokes and come up with plans that have a snowball's chance in hell of ever working. We know that sitting around and being all glowery and broody won't make the bad thing stop in its tracks–the best thing we can do is be prepared and relaxed. And fight. We can't forget the fighting."

Buffy continued, now begging Riley with her eyes. He'd never understood why she fought–not really. "We fight because, somewhere, there's the blind, stupid, useless hope that we'll win. That the Earth will be safe. That there's a reason for all the death and suffering. That somehow, we'll be...finished." She sniffed.

Jack dug in his pocket and handed Sam a crumpled handkerchief. She promptly began twisting it into a rope. Riley covered his eyes with his hand, unable to meet Buffy's eyes any longer.

The brittle, worn woman in front of them wasn't anywhere in the Pentagon's files. This young blonde looked as weary as Jack on his worst days–the ones when he really comprehended the scope of what they'd gotten themselves into by opening the 'gate and killing Ra. The days when the decisions he made meant people died or would keep dying, and he realized that he couldn't stop it from happening.

Buffy's ancient hazel eyes locked on Daniel, receiving sympathy and understanding in return, but not pity. She took them as the gifts they were. For once, he was content to let someone else speak.

She took a deep breath, hoping that it would clear her head of old ghosts. It didn't. "And now...now you tell me that no matter what I do...even if the slayers kill every demon or vamp on the planet...stop every apocalypse...there's a very good chance that the planet will be destroyed or that all the people we've worked so hard to save...they'll become nothing but slaves."

Teal'c met her stare, which was becoming a bit vacant as she lost herself. Buffy Summers was a warrior. He was confident that she would make the proper decision, no matter what it cost her. "Yes."

After a moment, Buffy nodded and straightened her shoulders, again becoming the woman who'd first walked into Jack O'Neill's house. "Okay. You've got me."

"Why?" Jack was going to kill him for what sounded like an argument, but Daniel's curiosity was strangling him.

Her gaze was steady. "Because I refuse to be a slave. Because I refuse to let the bad guys win. Because I don't trust any government to save this planet." She had other, more personal reasons, but she wasn't going to divulge them to a roomful of virtual strangers, Riley included. She'd spilled enough of her soul for one night.

Jack nodded. After what she'd said, he was almost desperate to get her on his team. This woman wouldn't give up fighting until she died. "That's fair."

"I won't do this alone. I need some of my people to know, so they can make their choices."

Jack cleared his throat and began to fidget. Some days it seemed like everyone in the federal government knew about the Stargate program, but in reality it was still highly classified. He wasn't completely comfortable divulging information to everyone Buffy Summers asked him to, no matter what the Joint Chiefs said. "I'd like to keep the group as limited as possible."

She nodded once. "I'd like to tell them in person. This...it isn't something you can say over the phone or in an e-mail."

Jack lay a warning hand across Sam's shoulders and gave them a squeeze before she opened her mouth and started babbling about secure lines and dedicated servers, even though she knew rationally that it wasn't what anyone needed to hear at the moment. During emotional stress, Sam resorted to technobabble. He knew that–he just didn't want to deal with it right now.

"Where?"

"Cleveland. There's a complex, and it's fairly central."

As Jack, Buffy, and Sam began to work out the logistics for what was shaping up into some kind of trip, Daniel noticed that Dawn hadn't returned. She had to be freezing on the deck by this point.

"I'm going to go check on Dawn. She's been out there a while."

"Thanks, Daniel."

Daniel grabbed an afghan from the back of the sofa on his way out, jostling Jack and Sam a little as he did so. He walked outside and saw Dawn, huddled in her thin denim jacket, arms hugged around herself, still staring at the stars.

She spoke as soon as she heard the door close and his foot step onto the wood, not looking at him. "She would have done it anyway, y'know."

He laid the blanket around her shoulders and she clenched it tightly around her, instinctively seeking warmth. "What?"

"Buffy. She would have done it anyway. You didn't have to lie to me."

Daniel was baffled. Twenty-seven languages, over one hundred planets, three PhD's, a year as an ascended being and he still couldn't understand women. "Didn't have to...you think I lied to you?"

"Yes."

"What about?"

"Being my advisor."

Clarity was going to be on sabbatical for a little while longer. "I didn't lie to you about being your advisor, Dawn. I want to be your advisor. Very much. You seem like a great person and your work is fascinating. And apparently valuable."

"As long as I brought Buffy with me to meet General O'Neill."

"It was your idea to bring her with you, remember?" Daniel yelled, completely exasperated. He grabbed Dawn's shoulders and turned her towards him. The blanket fell to the ground as she instinctively came up swinging and hit him on the ear, knocking his glasses loose.

She was furious, burning with rage at him, Buffy, herself, the situation. "Keep your hands off me, Dr. Jackson. I kill things that would scare you to death."

Fine. He went icy cold and removed his glasses, putting them in his pocket. "You have no idea what scares me, Miss Summers. No idea at all."

He picked up the blanket and walked back towards the house. Maybe Buffy or Riley would be able to figure out what the hell was going on with Dawn.

Dawn sighed. She needed him, and it really wasn't his fault. "Wait."

He turned and folded his arms across his chest. And waited.

She slid a hunk of hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry. It's not you, it's me."

Daniel still wasn't talking. Especially since Dawn seemed to be giving him a standard break-up speech and he was confused again. He hadn't known they were dating.

Goddess, this was hard. Did Buffy have to do this every time she jumped to a bad conclusion? "I...I was angry. Because Buffy got offered the chance to save the world. Again. While I got offered the glorious and fun-filled chance to stay here where it's safe and translate some ancient journals that may...someday...be vaguely useful."

"Riley told me you wanted to be a Watcher."

Dawn shook her head and wrapped her arms around her torso again. Daniel handed her the afghan. She accepted it as the peace offering it was meant to be and draped it around herself. "It was what I wanted, but only because there was nothing else for me to do. I'm human." They'd get into the key stuff later, if it became necessary.

"Okay." Daniel considered that a point in her favor.

"No, I mean...I'm not special. I'm not super strong or uber witchy. I don't get visions. I don't have special healing powers. But I know about vamps and demons and the kind of fight that's going on under everybody else's noses. I can't just ostrich myself and pretend nothing's happening. So I decided I was going to help the people who were special."

"Sounds special to me. You have no idea how many people refuse to fight. Especially if it means doing boring stuff in the background." Daniel didn't even want to think about what the SGC would be without Walter Davis and Sergeant Siler. He made a mental note to buy them both dinner.

She waved him off and began to pace. He leaned against the railing and watched. "Except I've been talking to Giles and Wes, and it looks like I won't even be a Watcher."

Daniel was shocked. "What? Why not?"

"It's my decision, actually. I can't work with a slayer, teach her everything I know, and then send her off to fight. To die. I'm sick of people protecting me and dying for me–and I'm not worth all the fuss, trust me. I know exactly what Buffy went through–how much she didn't want to be a slayer. How tough her life is and was because she became one. I won't ask someone else to go through that when I can't."

He didn't have anything to say to that. "So what are you going to do?"

She stopped and shrugged, looking at her feet. "Dunno. Probably translations. I can do those without working directly with a slayer."

"May I offer you an alternative?"

Dawn looked up at Daniel. He'd put his glasses back on. "Sure."

"I wanted to ask you as soon as I saw your resumé, before I knew about Buffy being a slayer, but then I didn't, because Riley was so positive you wouldn't be interested..."

"Dr. Jackson..."

Daniel sighed. "I'd like you to join my team."

Now Dawn was shocked. "SG-1?"

Flushing slightly, Daniel shook his head. "No. I meant my linguistics department. I desperately need someone with your skills to run the place when I'm not there."

"Where will you be?"

He paused to think. "Oh...Seattle, Russia...stranded on some weird planet...held captive on a mother ship by a system lord–they're the head Goa'ulds, by the way...working with the Tok'ra...sometimes I have conferences..." Sometimes he was ascended to a higher plane of existence...but maybe he'd just keep that to himself for a while.

Dawn was outwardly skeptical, even if, internally, she was jumping around and cheering because Daniel Jackson had decided to hire her before he found out her sister was a slayer. "Uh huh. So I'm stuck in the office translating while you're out having fun?"

He gave a wry smile. "I wouldn't call working with the Tok'ra fun, precisely...but no, if you wanted to, I guess you could be on a field team."

She smiled. This offer was starting to sound pretty good. "What do you do on a field team?"

Daniel studied the side of Jack's house. No peeling paint for Jack O'Neill. "You prepare briefings. You go to new planets, meet new people and learn about new cultures. You try not to get killed or taken hostage by the Goa'uld. According to my last performance review, that's not really my strong point. Um, translate any books, papers, walls, or technology you find on the planet, determine whether there's any important information about how to fight or defeat the Goa'uld for good. I seem to spend a lot of my time running."

Dawn grinned as a thought occurred to her. No demons could kidnap her if she wasn't on the planet to kidnap, right? Bonus!

"Oh, and sometimes we have to shoot and kill. Are you okay with that?" He was serious. Dawn was used to fighting the inhuman–she'd have to be able to fight and possibly kill something with a human face if Jack let her out on a team.

"I'm okay with the running. I usually run about ten miles a day, just in case–rule number one of not being dead is to not let the bad guys catch you."

He smiled. That was a rule he could get behind. Plus it addressed some of the fitness requirement issues that Jack (and the Air Force) had. "Didn't you tell me you've been kidnapped twenty-six times?"

"Sometimes they're quicker than others."

"I see."

She leaned next to him on the railing and offered him some afghan, which he took gladly. Early to mid-fall in Colorado wasn't exactly warm at night. "I don't know about the shooting. One of my best friends was killed by a stray gunshot six years ago and it's still fairly wigsome. But I promise to try."

"I guess that's all we can hope for." Dawn shivered and unconsciously scooted closer to Daniel. He automatically put his arm around her and she snuggled in closer.

"You make a good space heater."

He laughed. Sha're hadn't liked sleeping snuggled in with him during the summer on Abydos because he made her too hot, but she'd slept practically on top of him as soon as it started getting cooler. "I get that a lot."

Dawn tilted her head back and stared at the night sky. She was content with herself and her decision, breathing deeply in the crisp night air. "How many have you been to?"

He looked up. From long habit he found the North Star and the Big Dipper. "In this galaxy? Not very many."

The door opened and Jack stepped through, clearing his throat noisily. He raised a silent eyebrow at Daniel and Dawn, the afghan, their close physical proximity, and the fact that neither one had moved an inch when they saw him approach. "Hey, campers. Looks like we're going to Ohio."

Dawn perked up. "Really? When?"

"Your sister's on the phone right now, coordinating schedules. Probably today or tomorrow." Daniel still hadn't moved. "Everything okay out here?"

"Yes, Jack, everything's fine. We were just on our way in." He removed his arm from around Dawn's shoulders, leaving her with the afghan and walking towards the house. "Oh, and Dawn has graciously agreed to come to work for us."

"Sweet." Jack's eyes bored into the back of Daniel's head as the archeologist walked into the living room and began chatting easily with Riley. He hoped the good doctor knew what he was getting into. He gestured towards the door. "Coming?"

"Yeah. In a minute." As soon as she figured out why having Daniel Jackson's arm around her made her feel comfortable and safe in a way she hadn't since her mother was alive.

"Okay." He left to reassure Buffy that her sister wasn't having a meltdown and firm up their travel plans.

In later years, Daniel Jackson would realize that it was during this conversation that he fell a little bit in love with Dawn Summers.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

OOOOOOOOOO

In Flight

OOOOOOOOOO

Jack shifted in his seat for the fifth time in ten minutes, then stretched his right leg out in front of him to work some of the stiffness out of his knee. Private jets were great in terms of convenience, but they did have their drawbacks--lack of flight attendants (or, more importantly, lack of snacks), no in-flight movie. They also couldn't make him younger or take away the discomfort from all the physical damage he'd suffered over the years.

He looked around. Teal'c seemed to be explaining kel-no-reem to Buffy, who was sitting across from him on the floor in some position that made her look like a pretzel. Next to Jack, Sam was writing something on her laptop–probably a report of some kind. He hoped it wasn't a technical report. He still didn't understand why Carter gave them to him in the first place–he only ended up having her explain it to him in person anyway.

Finn and Dawn Summers were behind him, apparently catching up on old times and peppering the air with occasional bursts of laughter. Daniel appeared to be dozing across the aisle from them. Considering the incredibly boring appearance of the book in front of the archeologist, Jack wasn't surprised Daniel had fallen asleep.

He twisted in his seat, trying not to knee Sam in the hip as he did so–she tended to get touchy about stuff like that. "So, who're we meeting?"

Sam looked at her watch, then turned to Daniel. "Twenty-three minutes on the nose. You owe me ten dollars." She raised her voice so it could be heard in the front of the plane. "Teal'c, you owe me five."

Teal'c gave a solemn nod as Buffy smirked. She'd decided not to bet until she knew General O'Neill better. Dawn had almost laid some money down, but chose not to after Riley whispered something to her about a sucker bet. Carter was hell on numbers–combine them with her knowledge of Jack O'Neill, and she was almost unstoppable.

Daniel opened his eyes and checked his watch. "Darn it. You couldn't have held out for another seven minutes, Jack?" He knew he shouldn't have bet against Sam.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He watched as Daniel took out his wallet, removed a bill, and handed it to Sam. "Carter, what the hell is going on?"

"Nothing important, sir." Sam blinked her blue eyes, the perfect picture of innocence.

Jack didn't buy it. He glared at her. "Did you bet on my attention span again, Carter?"

When she bit her lip and didn't answer, he glared at the rest of the original members of SG-1. "Didn't I order you guys not to do that anymore?"

Daniel beamed a smart ass grin at his friend. "Sure, you ordered us, Jack. But we're not military and this wasn't a combat situation, so we decided to ignore you. You never ordered Sam not to do it–you just asked her not to, so she's in the clear, too."

Jack grumbled. Teal'c prudently decided that any further discussion of kel-no-reem would have to wait until the rest of his team was elsewhere. Now that they were talking, the necessary depth of concentration would be impossible to achieve. He stood and put a hand down to help Buffy up. "I believe we should return to our seats and answer O'Neill's questions." He wouldn't admit to curiosity under threat of zat blasts, but he was definitely intrigued by the little they'd heard so far about living life on a Hellmouth.

Buffy put a hand in his and stood quickly, but was grateful for his support when the airplane hit a turbulence pocket and she stumbled. "Are you well?"

"Yeah, thanks, Teal'c. Just me, being my normal graceful self." They made their way to their seats, facing Jack and Sam.

Dawn, catching her sister's comment, snorted.

"Shush, you." Buffy did a passable impression of their mother.

"Did you just wag your finger at your sister? Dawn, are you going to take that sitting down?" Dawn elbowed Riley, who was grinning at her.

"Could we have a little focus, please?"

Carter smirked. "You've got a little focus, sir."

O'Neill rolled his eyes at Sam. She'd sure gotten lippy since she'd become a lieutenant colonel. "Could we have a little more focus, then?"

"Yeah, sure you betcha."

"Don't you start, Daniel." Daniel's eyes widened in his 'innocent' look, which O'Neill also didn't buy–Daniel was much better at 'absent-minded professor.' Getting away from the SGC without incident had relaxed them all, but especially Jack, who was continually swamped by responsibility these days.

Jack looked across the aisle at Buffy, then turned his head and gave Dawn a level look. "What exactly are we walking into here?" After years of Special Ops and eight years of playing 'gate roulette, O'Neill was almost physically unable to walk into a situation without knowing all the available information about the players and locations in question.

Dawn sighed. She'd known they'd have to get to this sooner or later. Where were Giles, Wes, or heck, even Andrew, to do the boring parts? Yet another reason not to become a Watcher, in her opinion–you hardly ever got to play with the weapons and everyone tuned out the minute you started explaining something. Plus, according to Giles, you got hit on the head a lot. "I guess we should start with the Cleveland group, since everyone's going to be make it, since, y'know, they already live there."

"Sounds like a plan." O'Neill ran a hand through his hair, getting a little exasperated with how closemouthed the Summers sisters were. He knew they had history and didn't trust the government because of their dealings with the Initiative, but the project was closed down and had been for years. They needed to get over it already.

Buffy took over, deciding that by doing so she could put her spin on things and keep secret stuff secret. Dawn had a tendency to blab. "First are Wesley and Fred Wyndam-Price. Wes's the head of the American branch of the Watchers' Council. He's the on-the-spot guy with research–what kind of demon did you see, how to kill it, matching up Watcher/Slayer teams, scheduling patrols, all that stuff. Fred started out as a physicist, but she spends most of her time these days either helping Wes with computerized research–he's not nearly as technophobic as Giles, but he's still more comfy doing bookwork–or coming up with some kind of invention, but no one's ever sure what it is or how it works until she uses it in front of them to kill something."

Dawn laughed. "Cordelia said something once about her having made the most lethal toaster on the planet."

Daniel bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from asking Buffy and Dawn who Giles and Cordelia were. They'd probably meander their way there eventually. If they didn't, then he'd ask. He also didn't ask about the lethal toaster–he'd had breakfast at Jack's house a couple of times and knew firsthand how dangerous that particular appliance could be.

Sam sat up straighter in her seat as the wheels in her brain started turning. She'd love to get another theoretical physicist on her team. The guys she had were terrific at solving problems with information and formulas they already had, but weren't so great at thinking outside the box in crisis situations. "What was Fred's maiden name?"

Buffy thought for a second, then shrugged. Unsurprised, Dawn answered, "Burkle, I think."

Sam almost dropped her laptop. "You know Winifred Burkle?"

Now Dawn looked surprised. For that matter, so did O'Neill. "You know Fred?"

Sam nodded in excitement, now eagerly looking forward to the opportunity to meet and attempt to recruit this woman. "Winifred Burkle published an article on supersymmetry and p-dimensional subspace a few years ago that was absolutely groundbreaking, but I missed the conference where she presented it because we were stuck at the SGC." She couldn't help a small pout. Stupid foothold situation. Stupid Maybourne. Stupid P3X-118.

Even Daniel looked confused. "Supersymmetry and p-dimensional subspace?"

"It's actually more of a string compactification theory. You see..."

O'Neill, knowing this line of conversation wouldn't lead anywhere interesting, placed his left hand over Carter's mouth and gestured with his right hand at Buffy. "Continue."

"Okay, so we got Wes and Fred. Next are Xander and Robin."

O'Neill let go of Carter and surreptitiously wiped his hand on the leg of his pants. He couldn't believe she'd actually licked him. Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Who names their kid Xander?"

"The Harrises, I think. Anyway, it's short for Alexander, but don't call him that–you'll understand once you meet him, but if anyone's not an Alexander, or even an Alex, it's Xander. It gets really wiggy otherwise."

"Gotcha." O'Neill didn't have the slightest idea what Buffy was talking about, but figured that he'd have a better chance of understanding once he met the guy.

Teal'c nodded, understanding Buffy's point immediately. It was akin to addressing O'Neill as 'Jonathan' instead of Jack. Not that he ever addressed O'Neill by either name, of course, but Teal'c was clear on the concept, even if he did not understand what Buffy meant by her use of the word 'wiggy.' He would ask her later.

Buffy continued. "Anyway, Xander." She paused, trying to think of the words to describe one of her best friends. For being 'ordinary guy,' he was probably the hardest person out of everybody to explain to someone else. "Um..."

Dawn picked up the conversational slack, understanding her sister's dilemma. "He's very possibly the most extraordinary person I've ever met."

O'Neill smirked. "Oh, and what's his superpower?"

The brunette shot him a dirty look. "He's one hundred percent human but he fights anyway. He listens to people, watches them and tries to understand them." Dawn lifted her chin in the air, subconsciously preparing to defend her absent friend's honor, even if no one was attacking it.

Buffy spoke again. "He's the one guy in my life who has always been there, always stayed." She ignored Daniel's considering look and Riley's scowl and frowned as a thought occurred to her. "Well, unless I was dating vampires. Then he got all kinds of pissy and passive aggressive."

Riley sat up a bit straighter. "I always liked Xander." Fun guy, and he detested vamps. Not big on stealth, though.

Buffy shot him a look. "Don't go there, Riley."

Daniel's curiosity was killing him. "You dated vampires? Plural?"

"Long story."

Jack ran a hand through his hair again in frustration and began bouncing his leg up and down. "...and getting longer. C'mon, Summers. We're gonna land in a couple of hours."

"Right. So, uh, Xand's in charge of the slayers. Makes sure they're getting along okay, that they've got everything they need, talks to them when they get homesick, listens if they've got guy issues. Keeper of the ace bandages and ice packs..."

Dawn interrupted again, always happy to talk about Xander. Back when she'd been crushing on him she'd memorized almost every word out of his mouth; she'd never really lost the habit. "He's also the active watcher for a couple of slayers–Rona and Vi–but you won't be meeting them, since you wanted to keep the group who found out about the 'gate as small as possible."

O'Neill nodded in approval. "Good. So who's Robin?"

"Robin Wood. He used to be the principal at Sunnydale High, before it fell into the giant sinkhole."

Dawn grinned. "He hired Buffy to work as a guidance counselor."

"Um...that's...a little surprising..." Riley hadn't heard this part of the story, or any of the details relating to the demise of The First–Xander and Dawn tended to avoid the topic like the plague. This Robin guy must be nuts if he'd hired Buffy to give emotional advice to troubled teenagers.

"No kidding."

Buffy scowled at Riley and her sister. "Anyway...his mom was the Slayer during the late nineteen seventies in New York City. When she died, her watcher took him in and raised him. Eventually he ended up on the Hellmouth."

"Why?" O'Neill shot Daniel a look meant to keep him from interrupting. At this rate, they really would be in Ohio before they finished this half-assed briefing.

"Everyone ends up on the Hellmouth, sooner or later." She fidgeted. It wasn't really a lie, but it obscured the details of Robin's successful search for his mother's killer and unsuccessful attempt to get vengeance for her death. Buffy figured she owed Spike that, at least. For once, he'd get to meet people with as clean a slate as she could give him.

Daniel studied Buffy closely. He had no idea what she was talking about. He could tell she wasn't telling the full truth, but had no clue what she could possibly be hiding. Still, nothing like having secrets to uncover to peak his interest. He'd figure her out eventually. Probably just in time for her to be taken over by a Goa'uld. "Oh, well, of course. Um, so what does he do?"

"He's in charge of making sure the younger girls go to school, helps the older girls with college applications if they want to go, hires tutors and translators when necessary, deals with any watcher-y type problems that come up. He's also the guy in charge of watcher recruitment on this side of the planet."

"Watcher recruitment?"

"Daniel..."

He flushed. "Sorry, Jack."

"Anyone else from Cleveland?"

Buffy stammered, unsure exactly how to explain the remaining two individuals they'd be meeting. "Uh...first, there's Faith..."

Riley began to look distinctly uncomfortable and shifted in his seat, wondering if now would be a good time to grab a parachute and jump out of the plane. Teal'c raised an eyebrow at his teammate.

Sam remembered something from Jack's original disclosure. "Wait a second. Isn't Faith dead?"

Dawn couldn't help the snicker that escaped. "Wrong slayer." Buffy glared at her.

"What?"

"Daniel..."

He looked slightly sheepish this time. "Sorry, Jack."

Buffy rolled her eyes and pointedly ignored Riley. Faith was still a sore spot for her, at least in the ex-boyfriend area. They'd worked most of the rest of their issues out. "She's been in a coma and in prison, but she's much better now. Almost completely rehabilitated."

Jack raised both eyebrows. If this Faith person wasn't on the up and up, he wasn't letting her anywhere near the 'gate, no matter what Buffy said. "Almost completely? What the hell does that mean?"

Buffy shrugged. "Basically, that she won't work for the Big Bad or torture or kill you for no reason, but that she's not above picking your pocket to get money for a pack of cigarettes."

Dawn chimed in. "She's also got a mouth like a drunken sailor." She'd learned some of her best swear words from Faith–both before and after the slayer worked with the Mayor. The rest she'd learned from her mother when she wasn't paying attention. And Spike, of course.

"I see." Jack had his instructions–recruit anyone from Buffy's organization who was willing to come to the SGC. He'd been the one to add the limitations on access from her side and he'd defend it to the Joint Chiefs if it became necessary–most of them were too young to recruit, regardless. If it meant getting another slayer for the SGC, he supposed he'd be willing to deal with a little petty larceny. As long as she didn't steal from his subordinates and kept her sticky fingers off his yo-yo. "So what's the little felon in charge of?"

Dawn's jaw clenched. "Don't call her that." These people had no conception of what Faith had been through in her life or the choices she'd made. They weren't all good decisions and Dawn still wasn't always comfortable around Faith, but Dawn could concede that the woman had occasionally made the best choices she could with what she had to work with. These days, Faith was working towards making restitution for the people she'd killed and redeeming herself for her failures as a slayer.

O'Neill flushed and rubbed his side where Carter had jabbed it with her elbow. "What's...Faith... in charge of, then?"

Buffy decided to give Dawn a chance to cool off. "She's in charge of physically training the slayers–teaching them different fighting styles and training them how to use weapons properly and safely, mostly. She also does nightly patrols."

"Who's her watcher?" Daniel was working through their system, intrigued by the hierarchy and symbiosis between watcher and slayer.

Buffy answered before O'Neill could reprimand Daniel again for interrupting. "Wes."

"You didn't say that Wes was an active watcher."

"Faith and Wes are a special case." And that was all Buffy planned to say on that subject.

"Okay...so who's the last Clevelander?"

Dawn smiled at Spike being referred to that way. No doubt, if he'd heard it, some extremely loud and silly 'Big Bad' pro-British posturing would be in order.

Buffy looked down and played with the hem of her shirt, then tugged on her sleeve. "That would be Spike."

Riley jumped out of his seat and walked to Buffy, grabbing her by the shoulders before anyone even realized what he was doing. "SPIKE? Buffy, are you out of your mind? How long has this been going on? That idiot's tried to kill you, more than once! He helped Adam! The Suvolte eggs weren't enough? Now you let him hang around with impressionable young slayers? Have you got a rotating nightly schedule for whom he's fucking? Maybe it's some kind of initiation? Want to be a slayer–gotta sleep with a vampire first!"

Dawn groaned, suddenly remembering the reason she and Xander had decided not to tell Riley that Spike had returned to unlife and was currently unliving it in Cleveland.

The SGC members were shocked. They hadn't known Riley Finn had ugliness and meanness like this in him. Buffy wasn't surprised by anything except Riley's stupidity in grabbing her. She'd thought he knew better.

"Take your hands off me, Riley. You don't have the right to tell me how to live my life anymore." Buffy broke his hold easily and stood, preparing for whatever Riley was going to throw at her. She'd known on some level that this confrontation was inevitable but wished he hadn't done it in front of a group of strangers–and Dawn, who had never heard the full story.

He dropped his hands and braced his feet, knowing that if anyone was going to take a swing and make this confrontation physical, it would be Buffy. "Right. Like I ever had that right. You never cared about an opinion I had or feeling I felt. First because of Angel, then because of Spike."

Always the peacemaker, Daniel made a move to stand up and intervene in what looked like was shaping up to be a huge argument that would be better handled in private.

Dawn, knowing how seldom her sister dealt with her past history, caught his attention and shook her head in the negative. Buffy and Riley needed to have this out if they were going to be working together regularly and she knew that if they did it in Cleveland and Spike caught wind of it, he'd snap Riley's neck, soul-having or not. Buffy and Spike might not be dating anymore, but he was still absurdly overprotective of both Summers women.

Buffy advanced a step on Riley, angrily brushing her hair out of her eyes so he got the full brunt of her anger. "Angel and Spike had nothing to do with our break-up, you ass! Okay, maybe Angel had something to do with it, since hello, major emotional baggage there, but Spike? Please! If I hadn't been ripped out of heaven, I'd never have gotten together with him in the first place!"

Sam turned around and whispered to Dawn, "Buffy was in heaven? And came back?"

Dawn whispered back, "Later." Daniel decided he was missing vital pieces of information and changed seats so he was next to Dawn and she was next to the window. Dawn probably wouldn't want to sit next to Riley for a while anyway.

Buffy continued, shouting, "Or, maybe, if my wuss-assed boyfriend had stayed with me when I needed him, I wouldn't have had to turn to someone else! Didja ever think of that, Riley?"

"You never needed me, Buffy. Maybe Spike was right–maybe you do need a little monster in your man!" Riley was yelling back. Teal'c prepared to step between the two combatants if it became necessary.

Dawn made a mental note to smack Spike upside the head when she saw him.

Buffy swung away from Riley and stomped to the other side of the plane, hands waving. He turned to face her, but wisely chose not to move closer, suddenly glad all her weapons were in the cargo hold. "Well, I'm sorry you felt unappreciated, Riley, but my mother was dying and maybe I had bigger things to worry about than your precious ego! Oh, and as if my mother's illness wasn't enough for you, let's not forget the crazy hell-god tearing Sunnydale apart looking for my sister!"

Daniel winced. This certainly hadn't been part of Riley's recitation of the facts, or even his later description of the end of their relationship. Sam looked at Dawn again and mouthed 'hell-god'? Dawn motioned that she'd explain later.

Buffy was on a roll now. Her hands were planted firmly on her hips. "And who are you to cast asparagus anyway? Who's the one who was getting suck jobs from vampire whores because he wanted to feel needed, huh? Oh! And who's the one who declared undying love and then got married to Miss Perfect Peace Corps six months later?"

Riley's jaw tightened at the mention of his wife. "Leave Sam out of this."

Having vented her spleen, Buffy lowered her voice to a more conversational level. She'd never really had anything against Sam Finn except for the fact that she'd married Buffy's ex. "Spike stayed, Riley. He refused to give Dawn up when it would have been way in his best interest to do so and he stayed and fought Glory even though he could have left at any time. While I was...gone...he stayed and cared for Dawn because he'd promised me he'd look after her. After I was...back...he was the only one who didn't make any demands on me, who didn't expect me to be all happy, cheery, ultra-thankful Buffy."

Dawn frowned. In all their years in Europe, she'd never been able to get her sister to explain why she'd gotten together with Spike.

"But, the eggs..." Riley had also stopped yelling.

"Okay, not his finest moment." Buffy had to concede that. As plans went, it was definitely one of Spike's more idiotic ones, which was really saying something. Still..."He got his soul for me, Riley. He wasn't cursed with it like Angel was. His demon decided that I should be with someone with a soul and he went to Africa and got one for me. And it almost drove him insane."

Daniel resumed studying Buffy, this time as a woman instead of a slayer, trying to figure out how the two sides of the blonde meshed together and made a whole. She must be quite a woman to inspire that kind of devotion.

"Spike is with us because he's earned it. He was there when we desperately needed him to defeat The First. Without sacrificing himself, the world would have been taken over by those Turok-Han guys–and trust me, those guys make your standard, everyday, run-of-the-mill vamp look like fuzzy puppies–and I'm talking labradors, not pit bulls."

Riley mumbled something incoherent, then said, "Dawn and Xander never gave me the details about The First."

"Did you ever ask?" Buffy's hazel gaze was steady on his. "They would have told you, but they don't like to bring it up because of Anya, and, yes, for a while, because of Spike, before we knew he was back."

"No, I didn't ask." After a quick glance to make sure Teal'c wasn't going to rip his arms off, he sat in Buffy's vacated seat. Teal'c glared at him briefly, but said nothing, as per usual.

Sam leaned over to Jack and whispered, "Back from where?"

He whispered back, "Like I know? Finn's file doesn't have any of this in it."

Sensing an end to the storm, Dawn decided to play Xander and lighten the mood a little. "If it makes you feel any better, Ri, Spike spends most of his time working with slayers. He's their training vampire. Y'know, so they learn how to fight against vamp strength and speed and there's no shockage on their first patrol."

Riley smiled at the mental picture he got of Spike being pummeled regularly by a group of young slayers who didn't bother to pull their punches. It was a good picture–full color, lots of detail, good use of light. If the annoying vampire had to hang around, Riley couldn't have chosen a better fate for him. Well, he was a creative guy and certainly could have come up with something, but this was still pretty good.

"Alrighty then, campers. Finished with the Sturm and Drang? Can we get back to the topic at hand?" Even though his tone was cheerful, O'Neill's glare promised that Riley would have a great deal of explaining to do at a later date. "Who's next?"

Dawn shrugged. "Uh, England, I guess, then L.A."

"Wow, you guys are all over the place."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

Daniel spoke up, happy that he was about to have one of his questions answered. "Who's Giles?"

Dawn smiled. "His name's really Rupert Giles, but we all just call him Giles, because we'd never be able to call him Rupert with straight faces. He's the only dad I've ever met."

Dawn was telling the truth since she'd never actually met Hank Summers, but Buffy knew that wasn't really what the SGC people wanted to know. "He's the guy in charge–he does everything. Trains watchers, researches the big demons and apocalypses, assigns research projects to the book-guys, makes sure Wes knows about hot spots where slayers and watchers have to be assigned, watcher recruitment, supervising everybody else..." Five years had given Buffy an incredible appreciation not only for what Giles did, but had also taught her enough to appreciate that she didn't have to do it.

"He's also Buffy's watcher." Dawn rolled her eyes. Only Buffy would forget to mention what Giles was best at.

"Really?" Daniel couldn't wait to meet the man–maybe Giles would be willing to lend him his diaries so he could compare the narrative with Buffy's accounts of what happened.

"Yup."

"Cool." Daniel thought he very smoothly resisted the urge to rub his hands together.

"Willow's my other best friend. She's a witch."

"Okay." Jack figured it was a mark of how strange his life had become that he didn't even bat an eye at that. "Anything else?"

"She's also a great computer hacker..." Buffy stopped, realizing too late that maybe she shouldn't have just told the government employees that her best friend regularly broke international computer laws. Oops.

Riley, recognizing her predicament, offered an olive branch. "They already had that information from the Initiative stuff, Buff."

"Is she the one who made the bug finder you used at the General's? And the homing device Dawn's got in her shoulder?" Carter was excited. Another scientist, this one good with computers! Maybe Siler would finally be able to use his leave time for something other than 'gate-related injuries.

Buffy smiled, proud of her friend. "Yes. But I should tell you right now that both she and Giles are off-limits. They need to know what's going on, but you can't have them."

Carter's face fell. So much for Siler's downtime. "Why not?"

"We need Giles where he is–he's the only one everyone trusts to have in charge. I can't imagine what it would be like if he left. Plus, he's getting kind of old to be running around the galaxy chasing down bad guys."

Dawn stared hard at the back of O'Neill's head, almost daring him to turn around and say something stupid. Teal'c caught it and chuckled quietly to himself.

Sam didn't really care why they couldn't have Giles, stuck on why she couldn't have her hacker. "Why can't we have Willow?"

Daniel was incredulous. "Sam, did you just whine?"

Oops. "No, of course not." And thank you so much for noticing, Daniel. Sure, he got his linguist, but did she get a computer genius? No, of course not. She cleared her throat, elbowing O'Neill again when she caught him smirking out of the corner of her eye. "Why can't we attempt to recruit Willow?"

Buffy was firm. Willow had to remain in England, where Giles and the coven were nearby. The influx of 'white' magic from tapping into the scythe had eventually helped Willow gain better control over her abilities, but it was still far from perfect. Especially since there was no way they could know ahead of time that a new planet's energies wouldn't make Will go all Darth Rosenberg again–and if she did, there'd probably be no way to stop her. "Willow'll help if we need it, but she needs to stay right where she is."

Dawn nodded emphatically in agreement, unconsciously rubbing her left arm. She loved Willow dearly, but had learned the hard way to respect and slightly fear the power the redhead had at her command.

Buffy looked at Riley. "Before I talk about the Los Angeles people, are you going to be okay with this or are we going to go another round over Angel?"

Riley made an attempt to appear supremely uninterested. Dawn could have told him he'd failed miserably, as could Teal'c, who'd noticed his teammate's rigid posture. "I'm fine. If you want to talk about billowy-coat, king of pain guy, be my guest."

Dawn laughed out loud at that description–wait until she told Spike and Xander–Angel'd never hear the end of it.

"Big baby. Okay, so, um, Angel. Yeah." Maybe she'd better start with someone easier. "Cordelia! She's kind of my nemesis from high school, but she moved to Los Angeles, grew up and became a seer."

"A seer of what?"

Buffy smiled at Teal'c. He might be quiet, but he certainly wasn't stupid. Not unlike Oz, now that she thought about it. "She gets visions from the Powers guiding her, Angel, Gunn and Lorne to the innocents that need to be saved from...whatever. Gunn won't be coming because he's got finals coming up and didn't want to miss them. Lorne'll probably be there, if he can get away from his club–he's an anaerobic demon."

"He doesn't need oxygen to breathe?" Hey, Sam thought, anything was possible–she was talking about demons, after all.

Dawn smiled and corrected her sister's mistake. "No. He can read your future...or your fate...or your destiny, or whatever it is he reads. You have to sing in front of him for it to work–but it doesn't have to be on key, which I guess is good if you're Angel, 'cuz wow, he's totally unburdened by singing talent." Riley smirked to himself, happy to hear that Angel wasn't good at everything.

"Oh, and I forgot that Connor's going to be there."

"I wish I could forget." Dawn had met Angel's son on multiple occasions. So far, he hadn't impressed her–all brood and scowl, no action, in her opinion. Plus, he'd slept with Cordelia, who'd practically raised him for the weeks of his babyhood. Extremely high yuck factor there. She couldn't fault him for sinking Angel to the bottom of the Pacific, though. She'd been tempted to do something similar more than once.

"Who's Connor?"

Buffy grinned evilly at Daniel's question and glanced at Riley to see his reaction. "Angel's son."

She wasn't disappointed. His jaw dropped in cartoon-esque fashion. "Excuse me? His what?"

"His son."

Riley was looking at Buffy like she'd grown another head. "But Angel's still a vampire, right?"

"Yup." Dawn was smiling now. This was definitely the fun part of explaining about Connor.

"Who's the poor kid's mother?" At the moment, all he could be thankful for was that it wasn't Buffy. Oh my god, Buffy wasn't his mother, was she?

"Darla. Angel's sire." Riley breathed a sigh of relief.

Teal'c, Sam, Jack and Daniel looked fascinated. Riley looked more confused as he remembered part of their original discussion about Angel. "But...didn't Angel stake her?"

"You bet."

"Then how..."

Dawn decided to put Riley out of his misery. "Okay, long story short, an evil law firm called Wolfram and Hart brought Darla back as a human to mess with Angel's head. From all reports, she did a really, really, really good job at it. He slept with her. Drusilla, who, in case you don't remember, is Angel's childe and Spike's sire, vamped her. Nine months later, she sacrificed herself so Connor could be born..."

Teal'c spoke up. "Like MacDuff, in Shakespeare's play about the king who usurped a country." The brutal play about the dangers of ambition was definitely one of his favorites.

Dawn continued, somewhat breathlessly. "Exactly. Anyway, this vampire hunter guy from Angel's original evil period leapt centuries of time with the help of this demon guy, Sahjahn something, who had his own motives–basically, he wanted to get the baby away from Angel, because the kid was prophesied to kill Sahjahn and he wanted to keep that from happening because he liked being alive. Or something. So the vampire hunter guy ended up leaping through this portal to a hell dimension where Connor spent the next eighteen years of his life. About three weeks later, our time, he came back with a serious hate on for Angel."

"Can't say that I blame him..." Riley mumbled.

Sam was lost for the moment in pondering the theories about time and relativity she'd be able to prove or disprove just by speaking with Connor and tried not to drool–it was so unprofessional.

Jack had been quiet, busy trying to figure something else out. "So, what you're telling me is that this vampire guy, Angel, had sex with a woman..."

"Vampire," Dawn corrected, grinning at where she suspected O'Neill's brain had gone. She and Andrew had spent an entire Saturday afternoon trying to figure this out and all they'd gotten for their pains was a couple of whopper headaches.

He rolled his eyes. "Right, of course. So this vampire, Darla, was simultaneously the vampire equivalent of both Angel's mother and his granddaughter."

"Yes."

He shook his head to clear it as Daniel put his brain to work. "And this boy, Connor, is he a vampire?"

Buffy shook her head. "No. Superhuman strength and speed, no need for blood."

"Sweet." That was a perk. O'Neill was still trying to work this out. "So, Connor is simultaneously Angel's son, his grandson and his great-grandson?" Dawn nodded, though she still wasn't positive about it. "For crying out loud, the kid's his very own country song!"

Buffy's mouth quirked up. "He's also both Spike's nephew, his granduncle and...y'know what? I'm gonna stop talking about this now because it's making my head hurt."

Dawn asked her sister, "Are you ready to talk about Angel now?" They really needed to get his out of the way before they landed.

Buffy took a deep breath. "I think so."

Daniel leaned back and made himself comfortable while Riley made a concerted effort to stay where he was–he'd already heard most of this story, but under very different conditions. He wasn't looking forward to the repeat.

"Well, I first met Angel about a week after we got to Sunnydale, when I was walking down a dark alley..."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

OOOOOOOO

A/N: Hoo. This chapter kicked my butt. I had five pages written, got stuck for a week and a half, decided I hated everything I'd written, deleted it all and started over. The chapter title's from a Bowling for Soup song called "Ohio (Come Back to Texas)"

OOOOOOOO

There's Nothing Wrong with Ohio, Except the Snow and the Rain...

OOOOOOOO

"Are we there yet?" Daniel grinned. It had been a long drive from Wright Patterson, but he'd just spotted the sign welcoming them to Cleveland and figured it was a safe time to ask.

Jack apparently disagreed. "Daniel, if you ask that question again, I'm pulling over and strapping you to the roof."

"How much longer will it be, O'Neill?"

"Teal'c..."

"My butt's numb."

"Don't make me turn the car around, Summers. You don't get any slack just 'cause you're new." Buffy stuck her tongue out at O'Neill, making sure he saw her in the rearview mirror.

Sam winked at Daniel, who was seated to her left and smiled back. Riley was on Sam's right and Teal'c was sitting in the front passenger seat. Buffy and Dawn were seated ahead of them, with Buffy in position next to the door. Thank goodness for Suburbans–otherwise they'd all have gotten much friendlier during the three and a half hour trip to Cleveland.

Buffy peered out the window, frowning when she noticed that the sun had set. She elbowed Dawn, then pointed when her sister elbowed her back. Dawn frowned.

Daniel noticed. "What's going on?"

"It's getting dark. I hadn't counted on it taking so long to get here."

"Welcome to I-71. Home of the pothole. And the construction. Let us not forget the construction."

Daniel spoke before Jack could go off on another rant about the state of the interstate system. The last one had taken seventeen minutes. "Who cares if it's dark? It might make navigating more of a challenge, but I think Jack and Teal'c can handle it."

Damn. Buffy knew she'd forgotten to tell them something. She twisted in her seat to face Sam, Daniel and Riley. "Um, yeah, about that..." Riley groaned.

"Cleveland's the new Sunnydale," Dawn blurted, turning. "Okay, not in the sunshine most days of the year sense or the walking around without a coat in April sense..."

Buffy sat up straighter as Sam and Daniel sent her disbelieving looks. "More in the Hellmouth-y sense, actually. And it's not really Cleveland...I mean, everybody trains and lives in Cleveland, because that's where there the cheap, abandoned, easily converted warehouse space lives, but the hellmouth itself is in some small suburb that no one's ever heard of before..."

"Like Sunnydale."

Buffy nodded at Riley. "Exactly. Except I think they call it Erie. Because of the lake."

Riley groaned again and immediately began checking his pockets for wooden items that could be sharpened into stakes. He wasn't sure if zats and P-90s would work on vampires, but he knew that stakes did and wasn't about to take any chances.

"You've brought us to the freaking hellmouth?" O'Neill's face was red with anger.

"Yeah."

"Remind me to kick your ass later, Summers." Jack wasn't kidding. He hated going into a situation unprepared and this was a huge fucking hole in the lines of communication with the potential to put his friends at risk. He liked Buffy, but it was his job to make sure that something like this never happened again.

Buffy hid her smirk at the idea that O'Neill could take her down, since it was a serious situation and she knew she'd messed up. "I'm sorry, General O'Neill. Honestly, I forgot..."

"How the heck do you forget about a hellmouth?"

She shrugged. "Everyone I know knows about it and where it is, so when I said 'we should go to Cleveland,' I'm not used to having to add the explanation that it's the new demon Mecca, since everyone knows that already, and I just...forgot."

"Uh huh." Jack wasn't sure he bought her explanation.

"Actually, that's not outside the realm of possibility, sir. When I get together with other astrophysicists, we use shorthand and everyone knows what we're talking about, even if we haven't clearly defined all the terms beforehand..."

He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. As soon as Carter entered the conversation, he'd known he wasn't going to win this argument, but that didn't mean he was happy about it. "Fine, Carter, but a gaggle of physicists don't just drop you off in vamp-land without any warning."

She smiled. "Well, generally, no, since we didn't know about vampires until a week ago, but we could blow you up accidentally."

"You don't need to sound quite so cheerful about that possibility, Carter."

"I'm just saying that it could happen, sir."

Teal'c turned in his seat abruptly as he saw motion in his peripheral vision. "Stop the vehicle, O'Neill."

Jack pulled over to the shoulder and stopped. They were next to a cemetery. "What's up, T?"

"I believe I saw two individuals being chased by a large group of people." He was already unbuckling his seatbelt. Buffy and Dawn had opened the door and were climbing out quickly.

"Where?" Teal'c pointed towards a large copse of trees on their right and Buffy took off at a run in that direction, Dawn following at a slower pace.

"Okay, I think that answers the physical fitness question..." Jack couldn't believe what he was seeing–Buffy was already at the trees, which were looked like they were about a mile from the road. Her sister was still running through the cemetery, vaulting headstones as she went, but definitely moving at a good clip.

Teal'c and Riley took off after the women–Teal'c armed with a P-90 and Riley with two pencils he'd found in his jacket pocket, feeling vaguely ridiculous.

"I guess we should follow them, sir?" Carter wasn't sure what to make of the expression on O'Neill's face–both Teal'c and Riley had run off without orders, a battle plan or an explanation and he didn't look at all happy, but he also seemed to be somewhat in awe of Buffy Summers's physical abilities. She guessed that hearing about it from the Joint Chiefs wasn't the same as seeing it for himself.

"I guess we should." O'Neill pulled the handgun from its holster at his side and checked the ammunition as Sam did the same for her weapon. Daniel grabbed Riley's abandoned P-90 and they ran towards the location where they'd last seen Buffy. She and Dawn were out of view and Teal'c and Riley were almost gone.

Carter spotted movement from the trees on the left. "Sir, they're being followed."

"Shit." They were. Six incredibly spry people were about twenty yards behind Teal'c and Riley and closing fast. He fired a warning shot. One of the people, a redheaded girl, turned abruptly and scanned the area, concentrating specifically on where he, Daniel and Carter were standing. "Okay, that's not good."

The redhead pointed directly at O'Neill and the six people changed directions and charged towards them. "Okay, that's really not good."

"Jack, are you sure they're vampires?"

"For crying out loud, Daniel, you couldn't have thought of that a minute ago?"

The group was about half a mile away now. It had been only seconds. Carter planted her feet and aimed at them, figuring that if they were human, they'd stop as soon as they perceived the threat. They didn't. "I think I can safely say they're not completely human, sir." Whether they were vampires, demons or slayers remained to be seen.

Daniel glanced around. They were out in the open. The cemetery was surrounded by trees, but at the rate those people were moving, Sam, Jack and Daniel would never get there in time for the trees to be useful as cover. "There's nowhere to hide, Jack."

"Terrific." The two men took flanking positions on either side of Carter, Daniel on the right and O'Neill to the left, slightly behind both of the younger SG-1 members.

The group stopped about fifteen feet from them. The redhead's forehead was bumpy, her eyes were bright yellow and she was displaying her fangs as she growled at them. Daniel took an involuntary step backwards.

"I'm gonna go with vampire on this one, Jack."

O'Neill immediately aimed and fired four times directly into the redhead's chest. She staggered but didn't fall. "Really, really not good."

Carter had aimed and was ready to pull the trigger at the redhead when one of the others, a brown-haired man wearing a studded leather jacket, AC/DC t-shirt, jeans and a mullet, launched himself at her before she could fire. They fell down to the ground, with Carter struggling as the vamp tried to attach himself to her throat. He had one hand under her chin and was lifting her head to extend her neck, kneeling on her thighs to keep her steady.

Daniel aimed the P-90 at the vampire. Jack put up a hand to stop him. "Hold your fire, Daniel! The bullets'll go right through that guy into Carter." Daniel sprayed the area in front of him instead, hitting four of the vamps. Three fell to the ground, groaning, but the fourth kept advancing towards them in full game face, growling.

Jack winced as Carter punched mullet-guy in the face, kicked him in the balls, and took off running, but was unable to see where she went, since the redhead landed a hard side kick to his right knee while he wasn't paying attention. He fell down on his right side, almost passing out from the pain. "Fuck!"

The redhead grabbed Jack's wrists while he was incapacitated and went for his throat. Jack managed to get a foothold on the vamp's torso with his left foot and kicked out, throwing her back a few feet. Before he could stand, she kicked him in the ribs and he felt something crack. A quick look over his shoulder told him that no one else was doing any better–mullet-guy had Carter trapped spread-eagled against one of the trees and the wounded Asian vamp had Daniel's shoulders pinned to the ground and was starting to bend over him.

Then, suddenly, O'Neill could breathe and was free. A bit covered in dust and having some difficulty breathing because of what he presumed were a couple of broken ribs, but fine otherwise. Teal'c was standing over him, holding a tree branch and looking extremely pleased with himself. "O'Neill."

"T." Jack had never been so happy to see someone in his life, except for Daniel that time when Ba'al was torturing him. Panting, he accepted Teal'c's hand up, then leaned on his friend to keep from putting weight on his knee. "Carter? Daniel?"

"They will be fine, O'Neill." The Jaffa seemed even more confident that usual, especially considering the state his friends had been in when Jack last spotted them.

"Vampires suck..." Before Jack could get another word out, something went flying through the air towards Carter and mullet-guy. It hit the guy in the chest and he disintegrated. Carter was bleeding from a cut on her forehead and was breathing heavily as color returned to her face, but she seemed otherwise unharmed.

"Gotcha!"

"Nice shot, slayer!" That accolade came from the peroxide blond man standing off to the side with Dawn Summers and Riley Finn.

A leather-clad, long haired brunette dropped the crossbow she'd been holding and the blond tossed her a double-bladed axe, which she began blithely using to chop off the heads of the vampires Daniel had downed. She grinned cheekily at the blond as the vamps exploded into dust and she wiped her hair out of her face. "It's all in the wrist."

Meanwhile, Daniel was sitting up gingerly as Buffy and the Asian vamp were fighting about three feet from him. He shook his head to clear it and attempted to stand. Suddenly dizzy, he dropped back down to the ground with a groan.

Riley was immediately at his side, placing one hand under his left armpit and the other on his elbow. "It's okay, Daniel. Take it easy," he said, guiding the dazed archeologist away from the fighting.

"Shouldn't someone help Buffy?"

Buffy was alternating punches and kicks, ducking the occasional blow from the vamp. Riley watched for a minute, then shook his head. "She's okay. If we try to help, we'll just get in the way." Besides, he knew that Daniel needed his support and that Dawn, Faith or even Spike would help Buffy out if she got into trouble.

"Oof." Buffy landed on her back after the vamp tossed her over his shoulder.

"You're getting sloppy, slayer. Droppin' that shoulder again. I'm tellin' the Watcher."

Buffy glared at the blond as she performed a spinning kick and sent the vamp flying. "What are you, my brother?"

Spike chuckled. "Never that, luv."

After another left jab to his nose and a kick that launched the vamp into a headstone hard enough to shatter it, leaving Daniel's mouth hanging open in admiration, the vamp abruptly decided that Buffy wasn't the easy prey he'd been looking for. He turned and ran off in towards the trees on the left. Buffy followed.

"Need help there, B?" Faith gave the axe a few bored swings, working out some stiffness in her shoulder.

Buffy caught up to the vampire quickly and pulled Mr. Pointy from the inside of her jacket, using an overhand movement to stab him in the chest. The vampire poofed instantly. "Naah. I'm good," she said, wiping the vamp dust off on her pants as she walked over to where her friends stood. She smacked Spike. "I can't believe you were gonna tell Giles on me."

Spike lounged against one of the headstones, lighting a cigarette. "Still might. You're broadcasting your punches again, slayer. You don't want to make it any easier for 'em. Not having anyone to spar with isn't doing you any favors and the Watcher needs to know that. Unlike my girl Faith, here, who's perfect in form." He slung an arm over Faith's shoulders.

Blushing slightly at the praise, the brunette stole Spike's cigarette, inhaled, handed it back to him and smirked at Buffy and Dawn as she exhaled. "And only a little homicidal, so that's an improvement."

Daniel cleared his throat. He had regained his equilibrium and was standing on both feet without Riley's help, but O'Neill was still leaning heavily on Teal'c.

Carter limped over and studied Riley, rubbing her forehead gingerly. He didn't seem at all surprised or thrown by what had occurred. "That...that was incredible! Teal'c, how did you know what to do? I was sure we were toast when the bullets didn't have any effect on the vampires. God, they're strong, and so fast!"

As Carter explained to Teal'c that no, she hadn't really believed that the vampires would turn them into dry bread, and before anyone could answer her question, Spike saw the blood on her fingers and took a few steps backward from her, resisting the urge to lick her fingers clean. He eyed her closely, appreciating what he saw–blonde, big blue eyes, long legs. Rich-smelling blood. He licked his lips. Maybe when he got to know her a little better...

"Down, boy," Faith murmured, recognizing the look on the vamp's face.

Buffy looked at Carter, then at Spike. She rolled her eyes and handed Carter a crumpled tissue from her pocket. "Uh, Sam, why don't you use this to wipe the blood off..." Sam looked at Spike's hungry expression and hastily began wiping her hand, then held the tissue to her forehead.

O'Neill put two and two together and glared at four. He leveled his gun at Spike. "Back up. Now."

"Jack, do you really think that's necessary?"

"Yes, Daniel, I think it's entirely necessary."

Spike, being Spike, stuck his hand out to Sam. "I'm Spike, and you are?"

Carter took his hand and shook it, hearing what sounded like a growl from O'Neill. Her eyes widened. Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, U.S. Air Force."

Spike's ears hadn't missed the sound from the gray-haired guy either. He grinned. How nice of the slayer and the 'bit to bring him new playmates to torment. He kissed Sam's hand, causing Dawn, Buffy, Faith to roll their eyes while Riley grunted in disgust. "Really? Air Force...well, that's certainly something different..."

The sound of the safety flipping off O'Neill's gun brought the group's attention around to where he and Teal'c were standing. Faith picked up the crossbow from the ground, loaded a bolt, and leveled it at O'Neill. "I wouldn't."

Without consulting each other, Daniel and Dawn immediately stepped into the empty space between the two combatants. Dawn put her hands on her hips and frowned at Faith while Daniel crossed his arms over his chest and looked steadily at O'Neill.

O'Neill flipped the safety back on, but didn't lower the gun. "Dammit, Daniel!"

Daniel didn't move. "You know they're not a threat, Jack."

Jack kept his eyes locked on the brunette. "I don't know anything of the kind, Daniel," he said, gesturing towards Spike, "Blondie over there's looking at Carter like she's a midnight snack and that girl's pointing a loaded crossbow at me."

Buffy looked at the situation and wished that Xander had been part of the patrol that night. Now was definitely the time for a stupid tension-breaking wisecrack. "Okay, guys...let's just back up the testosterone bus for a second, okay?" Knowing where the real danger lay, she looked at the other slayer. "Faith, you first."

Faith dropped her finger from the crossbow release and lowered it so it was pointing at the ground.

"Now you, General O'Neill." He lowered the gun, but didn't re-holster it.

Spike raised an eyebrow. "General, eh? Lessee, then. We got a Lieutenant Colonel, a General and Captain Cardboard..." Riley glared at him as Faith chuckled. Spike gestured with his head towards Teal'c. "And there's no way he's human. What all did you bring down on us this time, slayer?"

"I had nothing to do with it!" Buffy glared at her sister. Daniel was instantly sympathetic with Dawn's situation, if a bit relieved–things like this usually got blamed on him. Not that the blame wasn't justified, of course.

"It was actually my fault, Spike."

He winked at Dawn. "You were my second guess, niblet."

She frowned. "Don't call me that. You make me sound like a can of corn."

Faith heard a noise behind her and whirled, raising the crossbow. "Looks like we're going to have to finish that patrol after all, Spike. We got newbies." The vampire swore and tossed his cigarette to the ground, stepping on it with his boot and pulling a stake from inside his duster.

Carter and Daniel squinted and could just see a hand rising from the dirt on one of the graves. "That can't be good."

Buffy noted the sorry condition of the Air Force personnel and quickly took charge of the situation. "Teal'c, Dawnie, Faith, Spike and I will do a quick patrol of the cemetery. Riley–Grab a few branches for stakes and take Sam, Daniel and the General back to the car and keep watch for any vamps we miss."

"How come Teal'c gets to go?"

Buffy walked over and poked Jack in the knee–hard. He whimpered. "Because he can walk under his own power and knows what he's doing. Stay here. We'll be back in a few."

Spike shouldered the axe as Buffy palmed her stake more securely and the group walked off towards the headstones, Faith and her crossbow in the lead. As Carter watched, Teal'c reached down and picked up a few branches, handing one to Dawn. She adjusted her grip on it and walked at his side, looking eerily like her older sister.

The others slowly made their way to the Suburban with O'Neill balancing his weight between Carter and Daniel as Finn went looking for sticks...er...weapons.

After a minute, Jack spoke, "Didn't Dawn and Buffy tell us that Buffy couldn't handle authority?"

"Actually, I think Dawn said that Buffy had problems with authority, sir." Trying not to look too concerned about O'Neill's condition, Sam ducked from under his arm as she opened the door and then stepped out of the way as Daniel loaded Jack into the front passenger seat–since the injury was to O'Neill's right knee, he wouldn't be able to resume driving when the time came to get away from the cemetery.

"Seems like she did okay to me." Jack resented being made to wait in the car like a recalcitrant three-year-old, but he couldn't deny that the plan was sound. Finn was experienced when it came to fighting vampires and should be able to keep his injured and vulnerable comrades-in-arms safe until everyone else got back.

Daniel grunted as he ducked his head and climbed into the backseat. "Me, too, but I doubt Buffy would tell us something like that if it wasn't true."

Riley overheard the tail-end of Daniel's statement as he approached the truck. He closed the door after Sam and motioned for her to roll the window down so he could talk, leaning against the side panel and scanning the area for vampires. "Buffy's great when it comes to risking her own life–too great sometimes, if you ask me–but she gets, well, tunnel vision. Like..." he said, straining for an example, "Okay, when we were at the Initiative, she ignored everything Dr. Walsh said..."

Daniel stared at him, incredulous, and ready as always to defend the underdog. "Riley, didn't you tell me that Maggie Walsh created some kind of Frankenstein's monster in her lab using spare demon parts? And I can't believe that sentence just came out of my mouth..." He frowned and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to get rid of his sudden headache.

O'Neill smirked. "Now you know how Hammond felt, all those years."

"Yes, I did, Dr. Jackson. I see your point–I do." Riley said, still conflicted about his relationship with Maggie Walsh, even after eight years. In some ways, he'd been closer to her than he'd been to his parents. "But, Buffy had just joined the Initiative. She didn't know anything about how we worked or what we stood for, but she automatically believed that every word out of Dr. Walsh's mouth was wrong, just because she was used to doing things differently. And she had no problems expressing her opinion in front of everyone."

Sam smiled. Buffy hadn't struck her as the type to bite her tongue in sensitive situations. "I bet."

O'Neill frowned, though. "Huh. That could really undermine morale in a program."

Riley nodded. "Exactly. Of course, Adam going out on a rampage and killing children didn't help either..."

"I could see that," Jack drawled, deciding to change the subject. "So, Finn, what happened in the woods before you rode in with the rest of the cavalry?"

Before Riley could answer, a blond vampire ran towards him from the cemetery. "Shit. Just a minute, sir." He ran towards the vampire and was a few feet away when it suddenly disintegrated and he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his left pectoral muscle. Looking down, he saw a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest. He attempted to pull it out with his right hand but was unable to do so because of the awkward angle.

Strong hands batted his hand away and he looked up into the shocked and worried eyes of the brunette slayer. "Wait! Don't! Crap, I'm sorry about this. I fired the shot before I saw you, and then you were so close, it went right through his chest and into yours!"

Faith ripped the shoulder of his shirt open and looked at the wound. It wasn't spurting blood, so she knew from experience that he wasn't in immediate danger. She decided to leave the bolt where it was until they could get him to the emergency room.

Her guilt, worry and adrenaline transformed into anger and she started shouting at Riley. "What kind of idiot are you, you shithead? It's not like this is your first day in the big city–you took out two vamps with school supplies half an hour ago! What'd, your brain take a holiday? Didja think we were just gonna let the vamp get away? Just say 'too bad, so sad, I guess we'll stake ya' next time, take a free pass and don't eat too many people'? You must have, since you stood right in front of the dead guy's heart, knowing it's the prime target! You fucktard!" She smacked his good arm and tried not to let her horror and bad memories of killing an innocent person while slaying overwhelm her.

Spike sneered at Riley. Still an incompetent git. "Yeah. What she said. Wanker."

"I agree with Faith and Spike. Okay, not about the fucktard wanker part, but you should know better, Riley." Buffy frowned, still concerned about Riley's injury and deciding not to say anything else. Besides, Faith had already said everything she was thinking. "Are you okay?"

"Spectacular." He grimaced.

Teal'c studied his teammate. "Do you require assistance, RileyFinn?"

Riley shook his head. "No. Nothing that hasn't happened to me before, unfortunately." He looked at the group, noticing signs of their exhilaration returning now that they weren't quite as worried about him. "Are you guys done for the night?"

"Yeah. Vamps never knew what hit 'em. Two slayers, a souled vampire, Teal'c and me. Suckers didn't have a chance," Dawn said proudly, shaking vampire dust out of her hair. "I guess we should get you and the General to a hospital."

Riley smiled weakly as they made their way back to the Suburban and he got ready to explain his injury to General O'Neill. "That would be nice."


	11. While We Wait

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.

A/N: In response to a review I received: The timelines between the shows are skewed somewhat--basically, the timelines for Buffy and Angel remain consistent, but the Stargate timeline starts later than it did in the movie and on the show. What this means, logistically, is that the 4th season of Angel, 7th season of Buffy, and 3rd season of Stargate:SG-1 all took place at the same time (at some earlier point in the story, Carter makes a reference to how she missed Fred's lecture (from Supersymmetry)because she was involved with a foothold situation at the SGC (from Foothold). Also, season eight of Stargate mostly happened (with some changes because of Riley's presence as part of SG-1 for the past year), but I'm picking and choosing elements from that to include as I go along. Season nine (and the changes in the character roster) has not happened.

So...to sum up...the story is set in 2009, which means that, with my skewing, it's approximately seven years post-Chosen, six years postNever Fade Away, and somewhere in the middle of an artificially created season 9 of Stargate.

Obviously this is an AU. To my knowledge, Buffy and Co. never showed up on Stargate. Alas.

OOOOOOOOOO

Buffy snapped her cell 'phone shut as she walked through the sliding glass doors into the waiting room, spotting Daniel Jackson staring unblinkingly at the television mounted to the ceiling. She sat next to him, making the cracked orange vinyl upholstery on the bench creak slightly. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Where's everyone else?" Except for the archeologist, the large waiting room was empty.

"Dawn went off in search of the restroom, I think. Jack, Sam, and Riley are all waiting to be examined. Faith, Teal'c, and Spike are keeping them entertained."

"I bet." Was it wrong to hope there was a lively tap number involved? Probably.

"There's nothing on the news."

"Huh?" Buffy glanced up at the screen and saw the weather report. Impending thunderstorm. Looked like news to her–Southern California hadn't been big on having actual weather.

Daniel groaned inwardly. "Sorry about that. I forgot you're not used to my thought patterns yet. Non sequiturs are kind of a challenging way to start a conversation," he said, sheepishly. "I was thinking that twenty vampires were killed in a cemetery tonight. Jack, Sam, and Riley were injured. You said this kind of thing happened all the time. You'd think there'd be something on the news about it."

She shrugged, well used to rambling thoughts. Nice to know being best friends with Willow Rosenberg had taught her something that would be useful in her new life. "There's never anything. Vamps are notoriously media-shy."

"I figured that. I just always feel like someone should have noticed something," Daniel said, angling so he faced Buffy slightly, laying his arm across the back of the sofa. "Whenever we get back from saving the world and I'm laid up in the infirmary, which, trust me, happens more often than you'd think, and the news is on, I'm always slightly surprised that the world's exactly the same as it was when I left."

Buffy smiled. "I know what you mean," she said, pausing briefly. "The world's a really resilient place, when you think about it. But do you ever get this huge urge to run up to a random stranger on the street and spill your guts?"

He grinned at her. "At least once a week," he said, thinking. "I wonder if it would make a difference. On the one hand, the knowledge might make all the countries stop warring with each other so they can bond together and fight, but then there's the flip side of that."

"Total hysteria with a side order of mass panic," she said, nodding. "Catch-22 scenario. Anyway, I hope more than twenty vamps bought it. Xander said three other patrols were out tonight, and I'd hate if it we ruined everyone's fun."

Fun? It didn't look like any definition of fun he'd ever read. "Is it always so..."

She looked up at him. "So what?"

"So brutal," Daniel sighed.

Buffy gave the question some thought, chewing on her lower lip. "Actually, it's usually worse."

Daniel paled. "Worse?" How could it possibly be worse?

Buffy shrugged again. "Except for you guys, those were some of the most experienced fighters we've got out there tonight, plus Teal'c, who's totally amazing hand-to-hand. Have you seen him?" She made a mental note to have Teal'c teach her his fighting technique–she'd seen most of the basic moves before, but never in that sequence.

Daniel gave a small smile, quirking up one side of his mouth. "A few too many times, actually."

"Right. I guess that makes sense." Duh. Way to impress the cute archeologist with your intellect, Buffy.

"What else made this fight different?" He was curious–most of his fighting against the Goa'uld was done with zats or P-90s, without a lot of close contact combat. If Daniel used his fists at all, it was usually because he needed to defend or prove himself in a civilization with its roots in one of Earth's earlier cultures.

Buffy shrugged again and began listing reasons on her fingers. "Everybody had weapons...there wasn't a big prophecy about it...most of the vamps were newbies. Your basic Wednesday night slayfest. Once we got down to things, it didn't take that long to kill the first group," she said, turning to face Daniel and crossing her legs. "Dawnie and Riley might not be slayers, but they've done a lot of time in the trenches and aren't going to make stupid mist...okay, Dawn won't make stupid mistakes and Riley's a little out of practice," she said, grinning, "and there were some injuries, but nothing serious."

"Tell that to Jack." He'd been hiding it well, but Daniel's eyes were now full of worry and concern for his friend.

"How is he?"

Daniel stood and put his hands in his pockets as he made a slow circuit around the waiting room. "I don't know yet. Teal'c's in with him now. No matter how bad it is, though, it's not as bad as it could have been."

"Oh?" Buffy watched Daniel wander around the room. Daniel Jackson, whatever else he was, was extremely watchable. Tall, well-muscled, bright blue eyes. Good arms, strong shoulders. The glasses made him look very approachable and only a smidge geeky, even if she was more than a little intimidated by the fact that he was probably smarter than Giles.

Daniel walked over to a rack of health issue leaflets and rifled through them, scanning the titles. None of them applied to him, luckily, so he left them where they were. Having run out of things to do, he sat back down on the sofa. "Yeah. If this had been a year ago, that knee injury might have put Jack out of commission for weeks; maybe longer, depending on how bad it was."

"And now?"

Daniel smiled slightly, still amused by the concept of Jack-as-General, even after almost a year. "He's in charge and can't go off-world much, so he doesn't have to walk, run, or fight the way he used to. He'll be able to stay off his knee and let it heal properly." Not that he would, but it was a good theory.

"That's good, right?" Sometimes with guys it was hard to tell.

He nodded. "Assuming he actually does what he's told, yeah, that's good."

"Not good with doctors, huh?"

"Nope." Not even with Janet Fraiser.

Neither one of them said anything for a few minutes; Daniel caught in memories of Janet and Buffy remembering all the times she'd been in hospitals, either recovering or waiting for news of someone else who was sick or injured. Eventually, the silence and the antiseptic smell got to her. "So, weird night, huh?"

One side of Daniel's mouth quirked in a wistful half-smile. "Yeah. Not nearly the weirdest, though."

Okay, that was definitely a conversational opening she could work with. "What was your weirdest night?"

He pondered that for a minute. "Well, there was the time we found a machine that made me switch bodies with an old alien guy and also switched Jack and Teal'c. I almost died. That was pretty strange. And, of course, terrifying."

Buffy frowned in thought. "Huh. Yeah, that happened to me once. Strange doesn't begin to cover it. Uber badness. And, y'know, terrifying."

"What's your weirdest?" he asked, curious. If fighting vampires was a nightly activity, he bet she had some doozies.

"I don't know if this is the weirdest, but once a singing demon came to town and made all of us act like we were in a musical."

Well, that was certainly different. He grinned and pushed his glasses up. It wasn't everyone with whom you could have this kind of conversation. "What did you sing about?"

Buffy blushed and fidgeted. How did you tell someone you'd been pulled out of heaven? "Stuff. I was in a really bad place back then."

"Oh." Daniel decided not to push that issue further. He'd been in a few really bad places himself–and most of them weren't even off-world. "How did the demon get to town?"

Buffy had just begun to tell a slightly edited version of the story (minus the songs and the shoplifting) when Dawn returned from the restroom. Before she entered the waiting room, she noticed Buffy's animated face and gestures as her sister chatted with an obviously enthralled Daniel Jackson.

Dawn smiled to herself. Buffy hadn't looked that happy just talking to a guy since she was first getting to know Riley. This was definitely behavior that should be encouraged. She turned around before she was spotted and headed towards the cafeteria so she could leave them alone...um...get a soda.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Have I said I'm sorry?" Faith sat on the hospital bed next to Riley and couldn't bring herself to look at him. She'd shot another human while slaying. She was having a hard time getting past that and had an urge to call Angel for support, like he was some kind of Homicide Anonymous sponsor or something. At least he'd be in Cleveland tomorrow. She could probably wait that long without going too postal.

Riley rolled his eyes and pressed down on the gauze over the bolt wound in his shoulder. The bolt itself was sitting on the silver tray with all the sterile surgical instruments. "Yes. Right before you yelled at me."

"Yeah, okay. Good." Faith nodded absently. God, she wanted a cigarette.

"You're not going to apologize for that? You were pretty harsh." He hadn't been reamed out like that since Sam died. Why had Faith done it?

She shrugged. "You deserved it. You should know better than that, Finn."

The realization that she was right didn't make sitting there any easier. Not that sitting there would have been easy even if she'd been wrong–every so often a sharp pain in his shoulder reminded him that yes, he'd been shot. At least the bolt hadn't hit anything deeper than pectoral muscle; the dusted vampire must have slowed it down before it made contact.

Plus, he was currently in a hospital cubicle, next to a woman he'd unintentionally made love to years before, and was waiting to be stitched up after he'd gotten accidentally shot while out hunting vampires. On his day off from protecting the world from invading aliens. God, his life was strange.

"So, this is wicked awkward." Faith was fidgety, like she always was after a good slay. The sudden trip down memory lane didn't help–she hated when she got all introspective and crap. She swung her feet against the lowered metal rail, making the bed roll a little. She picked up a pair of surgical scissors and idly opened and closed them.

"Um, yeah." What was there to say? Riley thought he very manfully resisted the urge to edge away from the convicted murderer playing with a sharp implement by trying to fold his arms across his chest, but deciding against it when the muscles in his shoulder pulled. He laid his arms at his sides instead.

Faith finally looked up at him, after putting the scissors back on their tray. The only reference she'd had before for Riley's height was from Buffy's perspective, which was lower than hers. Seeing their height difference from her own body kept surprising her–Faith kept expecting the proportions between them to be different.

She shifted her weight, then stood, still unsure what to do with her hands. "Do you want me to go? 'cuz I can. I could send B or Dawn in, if you want."

He shook his head and closed his eyes, leaning back on the pillows as he put his feet up. "You can go if you want, but don't send anyone else in. It shouldn't be much longer."

"Okay, then." Faith walked past Riley, towards the hallway. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

He heard her. "You said that already. It's...okay, it's still painful, but I'll get over it. Don't worry about it."

She stopped, cursed to herself, and turned to face him. She could do this. All she had to do was swallow her pride one more time. "Not for that. For the...other thing."

"Right." Riley swallowed and looked at the cardiac monitor for help. Being an inanimate object, it stayed where it was and didn't change the subject. Darn it. He could have happily gone through the rest of his life without ever having this particular discussion. As long as they were having it, though, there was something that had always bothered him. "Why did you do it?"

Faith sighed and approached the bed, sitting at the end by his feet. "I thought it was just sex. Didn't know there was anything else, so I didn't think who was under you really mattered. Me, her, it's all the same, right? I mean, you're a guy, what the hell did you care?" She chuckled once, bitterly. "Just a body in the dark. But it wasn't that, was it? You had to tell her you loved her. And I had to hear it. Found out that the whole Prince Charming thing wasn't a big con after all. I hated you both for that. You more than her, maybe."

Riley kept silent while Faith inhaled deeply and tried to regain some equilibrium.

"Never heard 'I love you' without strings attached before and I didn't know how to deal. So I took off."

"And I thought it was Buffy leaving." If he was honest with himself, that had been the beginning of the end for them–not Dracula. He'd been hurt that she wasn't able to accept his declaration of love. Things had only gotten worse when the entire situation had been revealed, and Buffy had been so hurt that he'd been unable to tell her apart from Faith.

"Yeah, sorry." Christ, this was worse then when she'd had it out with Buffy, and that had been no picnic. What the hell was it about this guy that messed with her head so badly? He was straight-laced and boring.

Riley watched her with steady eyes. Something more was going on here. "You said that already."

Faith stood quickly and backed up a step, eyes locking with his as she jammed her hands into her back pockets. "Shit, Finn, but right now all I got is a bunch of lame-ass sorrys."

"Tell me about it." He sighed. Might as well come clean.

Okay, now she was confused. "The hell?" What had scout-boy ever done wrong?

He shrugged, then winced when the motion pulled the muscles surrounding his wound again. He lifted the gauze to peek and was happy to see that the blood flow seemed to finally be slowing. "That's when things with Buffy started to fall apart. I've been blaming you for about ten years now. And, yeah, you were part of the problem. Not denying that. But you weren't the whole problem. So, for what it's worth, I'm sorry and I'll try not to do that anymore."

Faith sat on the end of the bed, avoiding Riley's feet, not used to people apologizing to her for things they did to her while she was riding the crest of the evil wave. "Huh. Yeah, okay." Unsure of what else to say, she began pulling at the lint pills on top of the blanket.

OOOOOOOOOO

"So what's the story with you and General Grayhair?"

"Who?" Considering her options, Sam was positive who the vampire was talking about, but she wanted to check to make sure.

"Gent who growled when I shook your hand."

She smiled. It was nice to know she hadn't been imagining that. "It's a long story."

Spike shrugged, laced his fingers behind his head and propped his feet on Sam's bed. "Not goin' anywhere. Heart attack coming in. Plus there's a big car accident about fifteen minutes out. Nurse isn't gettin' to your little scratch for another coupla hours, at the least."

"You can hear the dispatcher?"

He winked at her. "Vampire."

Sam grinned back. "Handy." It was really too bad he wouldn't be able to come with them to Colorado–they could always use good scouts and trackers at the SGC. It seemed like they were always misplacing people on missions. "So, Buffy said that when you're not killing vampires, you're training young girls how to kill them. How's that work? Because, to me, it sounds like a huge conflict of interest."

Spike cleared his throat and straightened up marginally, thumping his feet to the floor and bending forward, resting his forearms on his spread knees. Figures that would be her first question–anything else he could have just shrugged off. "Uh, yeah. It's a long story."

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." Sam had no idea what had gotten into her. She didn't flirt and was usually pretty clueless when it came to anything verging on romantic, but Spike was fascinating and didn't seem to be an alien, a psychopath, directly in her chain of command, or a police officer. Besides, he was really attractive and looked appropriately mysterious in his black leather duster. Okay, yeah, vampire, but it sounded like he was under control. How bad could he be?

He chuckled, always ready to play the game. "Well then, luv, you first."

"What?" That didn't seem at all fair. His story had to be much more interesting than hers.

"Formerly evil." He smirked at Sam.

Her eyes widened. That was certainly a new one. "How can you be formerly evil?" In her world, you were generally either evil (and Goa'uld) or not evil (and coincidentally, not Goa'uld).

Spike heaved a huge, melodramatic sigh and made a project out of studying his bootlaces. "You fall arse over teakettle in love with your fated enemy, for starters."

Sam looked him over. "Yeah, I guess that would help."

"Help nothing," he said, straightening, his blue eyes blazing, "from the moment I first encountered the Slayer, she became my entire existence. When I wasn't fighting her, I was studying her for weaknesses. When I wasn't studying her, I was plotting her demise. Sometime between all the fighting and the plotting, she got stuck in my brain like some kind of tumor."

She smirked. "Sounds very romantic."

The vampire sighed in fond remembrance and leaned back in the chair. "You have no idea." Sam swore he looked downright wistful.

"Why aren't you still together?"

Spike abruptly realized what she'd done and shook his head firmly in negation. He'd have to remember that this woman was smarter than his average playmate. "Not touching that one with a fifty foot pole 'til you tell me the story between you and General Admission."

Sam snorted at the name, opened her mouth, and promptly chickened out. "Hobbies! What do you do in your spare time?"

He smirked. "'sides training slayers, you mean?"

"Yes, besides that."

"'m restoring my old DeSoto."

Sam's eyes sparkled with excitement. Now that her motorcycle was complete, she was looking for a new project. Maybe he'd let her consult. "What happened to it?"

"Fell to the bottom of the crater when Sunnyhell collapsed. Hoisted it out." Nothing like escaping from an evil law firm by the skin of his fangs to make him reevaluate his priorities. As soon as Spike realized (with a little help from Lindsey and Gunn) that he wasn't bound to Wolfram and Hart by Angel's moronic contract, he and Clem had immediately headed for Sunny D in the demon's red Beetle, acquired a tow truck, and pulled the car out. The engine still ran, but most of the body was deeply dented, the front fender was missing, and the windows had been shattered.

As long as they'd been there anyway, he'd hunted around for a while–eventually, he'd found what he thought was Joyce Summers' headstone and grabbed a couple of pieces of it for Buffy and Dawn. He'd done the same with what he'd thought was Tara's, giving a piece to Willow. He hadn't found any sign of Anya, not that he'd been thinking of Xander's feelings when he'd gone looking; demon girl deserved to be remembered, that's all.

"Did you use a winch or a tow truck, or did you just pick it up and carry it on your shoulders?"

Spike was startled into laughter. He wasn't quite used to benevolent teasing about being a vampire–most of slayers were too young to do anything more than whisper behind his back, and quips from the older slayers, the Scoobies, and anyone from Angel's old crew still tended to have more bite than not.

As his laughter died off into chuckles, he smirked and raised an eyebrow at Sam. "A winch, eh? Now why didn't I think of that? Sodding hell..."

She giggled, then got down to the serious (and not at all heartbreaking) business of interrogating Spike about his car.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Damn it. She's giggling."

Teal'c looked up from the magazine he was reading and raised an eyebrow at O'Neill.

The general appeared to be pouting, and was shifting positions every few minutes. The right leg of his pants had been sliced open to mid-thigh and his right knee was propped up on a number of pillows. Every time O'Neill shifted, the ice pack slid off onto the floor, Teal'c picked it up, replaced it on the most swollen area, and returned to his magazine.

The Jaffa sighed and prepared to keep his friend entertained. The things he did for the Tau'ri. "I was unaware that it was inappropriate for Colonel Carter to enjoy herself."

Jack sighed and shifted again, sliding the ice pack off his knee to the left this time, and onto the bed. He bent in half and replaced it awkwardly. Looked like it was time to educate the alien. Again. "No, it's perfectly appropriate."

"Then what is the problem, O'Neill?"

He frowned. "She's laughing. With him."

Of course. "I believe that Colonel Carter is finding that she enjoys spending time with Vampire Spike. He is an intriguing individual."

O'Neill frowned harder. He'd thought the way was finally clear after Shanahan took off. Or Carter dumped him. Whichever. Point was, the cop was back in Denver, where he belonged, and Carter was still in Colorado Springs, where she belonged. With him. No! Bad thoughts. Damn it. "Intriguing's a good word...I dunno...I just don't trust him."

Teal'c resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course O'Neill was unable to trust someone who showed an interest in Samantha Carter and whom he therefore immediately saw as his competition. Like a true warrior, O'Neill was more focused on his opponent's weaknesses than his strengths and would always approach him from a skewed perspective. "Why is that, O'Neill?" As if he was unaware.

Jack couldn't hide his wince as he heard a peal of laughter from Carter from the curtained area to his left. What was the guy, the second coming of Lenny Bruce? "He's a vampire. He used to be one of the bad guys."

That reaction Teal'c had not expected. He raised an eyebrow. "As did I, O'Neill."

Oops. Nothing like accidentally offending a Jaffa to take all the fun out of sitting in the emergency room. "Um...yeah, well, but...," he sputtered. Suddenly, inspiration came to him. "You didn't eat people!" Ha. So there. He'd take a victory lap if he didn't think he'd fall on his ass doing it.

"It is my understanding that Vampire Spike only consumed people when he was controlled by his demon and not in possession of his soul."

"What'd she do, tell the whole bloody hospital? And I never ate whole people. Just sucked all the juice out. Who am I, Gnarl?"

Teal'c looked questioningly towards Carter's cubicle at the vampire's disgusted tone. He poked his head around the curtain. Colonel Carter seemed to be engrossed in drawing something on the back of the wrapper for a gauze bandage. The blond vampire saluted Teal'c, then winked. "Vamp hearing."

"Indeed." He returned to O'Neill's cubicle and resumed his seat, replacing O'Neill's ice pack in what had become a familiar exercise. The general was sitting with his jaw tensed. "Buffy Summers said that Vampire Spike was now training warriors in the battle against evil. This is someone who appears worthy of our trust, O'Neill."

Jack didn't say anything and decided to reserve judgment on that subject. He shifted his weight again and replaced the ice pack when it fell. When he retired, he was inventing an ice pack that tied on to the joint and becoming a millionaire off the profits. "What the hell happened out in the woods, anyway?"

Teal'c straightened imperceptibly in his chair and prepared to give his report. "By the time Riley Finn and I arrived in the clearing, Dawn Summers, Buffy Summers, Vampire Spike, and Slayer Faith were fighting in close quarters. Dawn Summers was on the back of one of the vampires attacking Buffy Summers, trying unsuccessfully to ram an arrow into his chest. Riley Finn stabbed him through the heart with a pencil..."

Jack's jaw dropped. "A pencil?" What kind of bad guy couldn't be taken out with a firearm, but could be killed by a writing implement? Talk about the pen being mightier than the...he couldn't even finish that thought in his head, let alone say it out loud.

Teal'c nodded briefly and closed his eyes so that he could visualize the past battle accurately as he recounted it to O'Neill. "Indeed. That vampire disintegrated and Dawn Summers fell to the ground. Riley Finn helped her to her feet. They were immediately rushed by four vampires. Slayer Faith saw their predicament but was unable to assist them because she was fighting two vampires of her own. I fired upon them, but it appears that bullets are ineffective against vampires..."

O'Neill snorted. "Ya think?"

Teal'c continued as if O'Neill hadn't spoken. "Buffy Summers grabbed the weapon out of my hands and threw it to the ground, then broke a branch off from a nearby tree. Before she was able to provide me with any instructions more than 'stake,' 'natural wood,' and 'go for the heart,' she was tackled by another vampire. We fought individually. They were surprisingly knowledgeable about Tau'ri fighting techniques. They were unfamiliar with those of the Jaffa, however, and I was triumphant. As opponents, they are remarkably disorganized and undisciplined. They were, as Colonel Carter stated, toast." He concluded, somewhat smugly. "Then, we heard gunfire and ran to your aid."

O'Neill swallowed and pretended he hadn't paled. He thanked whoever was listening that Teal'c was on his side, for the umpteenth time. "I see."


End file.
